


Tsubasa Chronicles Remix

by winter_princess



Category: CLAMP - Works, Cardcaptor Sakura, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: F/M, Minor Violence, Multi, Original Character(s), Out of Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-10-19 08:29:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 54,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17597825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winter_princess/pseuds/winter_princess
Summary: Princess Meine is forced to set out on a journey in order to save a loved one and protect her kingdom. She encounters our four travelers in the shop and joins their journey, only to get more than what she had originally asked for. FaixOC





	1. I: The Shop of the Dimensional Witch

**Author's Note:**

> This work was originally published on FFnet by us and we just wanted to move our story here.

 

In the country of Rosette which had been dubbed "the land of vampires", the last remaining pure-blood of the royal bloodline was experiencing problems. Her name was Meine, the last princess and heir to the throne. She had the natural allure of vampire royalty and her amethyst eyes were reminiscent of her father's that once held the royal council and advisers under such intensity. Her very gaze reminded the people in front of her just who she was.

Meine wanted to go to the shop of the Dimensional Witch, the legendary shop where the witch who granted wishes resided. She wished to go to the "Garden of Eve" and acquire the "Eglantine Rose", a rose said to have powers that could bring back the soul of the dead. Her wish was to revive the prince, who was unexpectedly killed by an unknown person who was able to open dimensional portals. In accordance with their tradition, only a pure-blood can marry a pure-blood and produce heirs with them. Regardless of their relationship, the prince and the princess were expected to produce an heir for the throne.

"Meine-sama, I'm afraid we cannot allow you to go on this journey. It is simply too dangerous for you to go alone." said a council member. "We cannot risk the chance of losing the only heir to the throne left."

"Are you questioning my strength?" she asked. Her voice echoed through the tall ceilings of the room. "I am a great warrior, as I have proven to everyone numerous times before." She sighed, understanding the gravity of her request. She was the last royal pure-blood after all, her ancestors had ruled the land for millenniums and her loss would be a huge loss for those loyal to their blood.

The council member, unable to find an answer polite enough meekly sat back down. Another stood and spoke to the princess. "Princess, I'm sure you understand our wariness. We, as the royal council, carry the task of deciding what's best for the people. Losing you is not an option."

Meine's gaze softened for a moment. "What other choice do we have?" she spoke, almost pleadingly. "As you said, I am the last of our bloodline. There's no way of continuing it's purity without Prince Akemi."

The council remained silent.

"I must go." she resolved. "For the sake of my bloodline. I will surely return with success, I must do so for the sake of this great country."

The members looked at each other for a response. One person spoke. "Your Highness, the witch is known to demand for the impossible from those who seek equally impossible wishes. Your wish requires you to travel to another dimension. That feat requires tremendous power, surely the price will be high."

Meine's eyebrows furrowed as she clenched her fists, she knew about it of course, and that comment made her anxiety increase exponentially.

"Tell me princess, what is it that you value the most?" he asked.

The princess's eyes grew wide as she absorbed the question. She froze, deep thought. What does she value  _the most?_ The family's treasures? Her possessions? Her memories of Akemi?  _What is it?_ "I don't know..." she responded meekly.

The council member who asked the question slowly leaned forward. "Then how are you sure that you will be able to pay for it?"

She didn't have an answer. She grew more anxious, her heart beating furiously against her chest. How was she going to be able to pay for it if she doesn't even know what would be asked of her? How will she give what she doesn't know? The silence stretched across the room as the princess pondered the question. Whatever it may be, will it be more important than bringing back her beloved Akemi?

No.

The answer was definitely a no.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them again, mustering as much authority in them and spoke. "Whatever the price may be, it will not be as important as bringing the prince back. We need him. And as the next Queen of this kingdom, I bear the responsibility of keeping the well-being of every person under my care. I will pay whatever will be asked of me, no matter what and come back with success. This is bigger than me. This is more than just a whim." She felt strengthened by her own statement. Meine hoped that she made the council feel the same way.

The council looked amongst them, discussing in hushed voices. Meine took this as a chance to keep calm and breathe. These men have been trusted advisers by both her parents, and Akemi and she valued their opinions on the matter.

A young council member who Meine got along with stood up. He smiled and bowed at Meine before speaking. "If everyone would please listen to me for just one moment…" –heads turned to face him— "I think we should let the princess go on with her journey." He bowed his head politely before continuing. "I believe in the princess's determination."

"As do I." Another member added, taking a slight bow before sitting back down.

The rest of the council discussed the matter briefly. Meine fidgeted in her seat.

When she heard a sigh from the oldest of the council, she knew she was in.

"Alright… We shall support you on your decision, your Highness." he said.

Meine immediately stood up from her seat and ordered the guard who stood by the door. "Bring me the high priest!"

 

* * *

 

She changed into more appropriate clothing and packed the object she believed she needed just in case, a dagger that was given to her by her mother which held the emblem of the royal family. She stood in the middle of a large circular room. Before her was the High Priest of the country who wore a hood over his head and a long staff in his hand.

"Please be careful, your Highness." he said, bowing low before raising his staff. "May you have a safe journey. I shall pray for your safety while you are away."

"I will." she said with a smile. "And thank you."

A magic circle appeared beneath Meine's feet and opaque, water-like substance surrounded her until she couldn't see the room or the High Priest anymore. Wind blew about her and she covered her face with her arms. It was over in a flash, the next thing she saw was a weird structure surrounded by other taller structures. She had arrived in a different world. A feeling of uncertainty began to dawn on her.

In this world it was raining and a tall woman wearing a black dress and a moon necklace stood in front of her. Meine could feel power coming from her but something was off. She was there, but at the same time she wasn't. Was this the Dimensional Witch?

She also noticed that there was a boy next to her cradling a girl in his arms. He looked like he had been through a lot. His brown hair had flecks of sand and his cloak was tattered and frayed. The girl he was holding looked unharmed though Meine could sense that she was close to, if not, dead.

"Are you the space-time witch?" he asked. Just as Meine was about to ask the same question.

"…I have been called that." The woman replied. Meine stared at the people behind the Witch. The people gathered behind her didn't look surprised at their arrival. Something told her that they may have expected their sudden visit.

"Please… Please save Sakura!" he pleaded.

The witch glanced at Meine before walking towards the boy. She knelt down and touched the girl's forehead. "What is your name?"

"Syaoran." he said, a hint of urgency was present in his voice. This Syaoran was just as anxious as was.

"This child has lost something very precious, and that something has been scattered to different dimensions. If nothing is done, this child will die."

The witch ordered the boy wearing glasses to get something for her and he ran back inside the house, being dragged by two little girls. Or at least they looked like girls. This world was weird. Meine felt uneasy. This witch, whoever she was, was very powerful. Meine felt a shudder when she had glanced at her earlier. This was definitely the right place, but had she made the right decision to come here?

"There is a price if you wish to save this child." she said to Syaoran.

The boy looked at the witch with determined eyes. "I will pay any price I can just to save Sakura!" Meine felt an unexpected fondness for the boy even though they have yet to speak to each other. He was a reflection of how she felt.

The witch nodded and turned to Meine. "What about you? What is your wish?"

Meine was about to open her mouth when a high-pitched sound came out of nowhere. Her instincts told her that something was coming, something big. On high alert, she scanned her surroundings and immediately noticed that the sky was changing color.

"Here they come." the witch said calmly. Perhaps she saw their arrival beforehand. Meine was filled with the sense of incredible power that made her nervous and uncertain. It all felt so big. The question posed by the council member replayed in her mind.  _"Tell me princess, what is it that you value the most?"_ Whatever it was that she held dearest, Meine knew that the witch knew exactly what  _it_  was, even if she herself didn't.

Similar water-like substance like the ones that swallowed Meine before stretched out from the sky and from the ground. It dispersed simultaneously, revealing two tall men who now stood in front of Meine and Syaoran. The taller of the two wore black clothing and held a long sword over his shoulder. He even had blood on his cheek. The other wore a long white coat lined with fur that had intricate blue markings. He carried a long staff barely similar to the one the High Priest in her world had.

It was almost comical when the two of them spoke at the same time.

"Who the hell are you?" the one in black asked rudely.

"Are you the Witch of Dimensions?" the one in white asked.

Both of them looked at each other, the black one glaring at the white one.

"Please give me your names first." The Witch said, politely pointing to Meine.

Meine suppressed her fear and anxiety and put on a mask of royalty. Her pride and ingrained tact didn't allow her to act intimidated in the presence of someone of great power. She felt it was only polite to curtsy before speaking. "I am Meine von Kreautz, princess of the country of Rosette."

The witch turned to the man in black after acknowledging her response with a light nod.

"I'm Kurogane." he said rudely once again. Meine sensed his anxiety hidden underneath his tough exterior. This man was just as shaken as her.

The witch turned to the one in white, ignoring the questions of Kurogane and waited for him to speak. This man was much more polite than Kurogane. He bowed before the witch before introducing himself. "I am a wizard from the country of Celes, Fai D. Fluorite." Meine's gaze lingered on him a little longer than what was polite. She had the weirdest sensation that they had met before. She shook off the feeling. There was no way she had met someone from another world. It was surely just her nerves finding a way to calm down by associating others with a sense of camaraderie.

"Do you know where we are?" asked the witch.

Fai nodded. "A place where any wish could be granted if a suitable price is paid." Fai seemed to have noticed Meine's prolonged gaze at him, he looked at her and smiled. She immediately broke her stare, feeling somewhat embarrassed.

"That is correct, the reason you are all here because each of you has a wish." said the Witch. Meine felt her shoulders tense up. Here comes the part she dreaded the most. "What is it?"

The two men spoke at the same time once again. If things weren't so serious Meine would've laughed.

"I never want to return to the world I'm from." Fai said with a smile.

"I want to return to the world I came from!" Kurogane said, glaring at Fai.

The witch turned to Meine and waited for her answer. This was scarier than what she had previously anticipated. There was a tall price to pay for her wish. "I wish for the ability to transcend through dimensions to retrieve something I need." She gulped, feeling more anxious than ever. But despite all the emotions coursing through her, her expression remained neutral. A perk of growing in a palace perhaps, surrounded by court ladies and strangers.

"That is a tall order for you three… no, the four of you." the witch said. "Perhaps even if you offered the most precious things you own, none of you has enough to pay. But if you four paid it together, you may just be able to afford it."

Meine's heart fell to her stomach.

"What kind of crap are you spouting?" Kurogane interrupted. How does he have the courage to speak so strongly like that? Does he not know he's required to give up something of incredible importance? Meine watched him with curiosity and trepidation.

"All four of your wishes are the same." The witch explained. She turned to Syaoran. "You want to go to different worlds to restore the memory of the girl…" she turned to Meine. "You want to retrieve something that is in a different world…" she faced Fai and Kurogane. "You want to go to your home world while you, on the other hand want to go to different worlds to avoid returning to your own.

"Your wishes are different but the means are the same. You have different reasons why you want to go to different worlds. Each of you individually cannot make that wish happen. However if the four of you combine payment for one wish, then you just might afford it."

"What would my payment be?" Kurogane asked.

She pointed at the unsheathed long sword he was holding. He took a step back and raised the sword above his head to keep it away from the witch's reach. "I'll never sell away my Ginryuu!"

Meine's anxiety grew as she wondered what the witch would ask from her.

However the Dimensional Witch had a sly look on her face and she poked him on the chest. "Fine then, in exchange, you can roam around looking like a cosplayer, violate the weapon laws, get arrested by the police, and get interviewed on television."

She watched with a huge smirk grow on her face as Kurogane tried to decipher what half those words meant. Meine did not understand half the words she had said and blinked away her confusion. This definitely was another world.

Fai told Kurogane that she is the only one in this world able to send another person to a different dimension. She was his only way home. The witch already had her hand outstretched as she waited for him give the sword.

Kurogane reluctantly sheathed his sword and handed it to the witch with a huff. "When I'm free from this curse, I'm coming back for it!"

The witch took the sword but she never once touched it with her own hands. She let it float next to her as she faced Fai. "Your price is your tattoo."

Meine felt her nervousness increase exponentially. The witch knew precisely what to ask for. She knew what Meine valued the most. What made her so afraid was the fact that even she doesn't know what it was. It could be something material, like Kurogane's sword, or something symbolic like Fai's tattoo. The princess closed her eyes in an attempt to calm herself down.

Fai looked troubled. "I don't suppose this staff would do instead?"

"The price is supposed to be something you value the most." she said. Meine's heart pounded loudly in her chest. The butterflies in her stomach were in a frenzy.

He was smiling even though his eyebrows met in the middle. "I guess I have no choice then…" He leaned forward slightly and through his clothes, weird markings floated off of his back and went to hover beside the witch along with Kurogane's sword.

The witch's eyes landed on Meine, making her inhale sharply. Here it comes...

"Your price is that birthmark on your chest."

Meine's hand immediately went to her chest. The birthmark was the source of her healing powers. Without it, she would heal at the same rate as a regular human being. Why is the Witch asking for something as small as an ability?...  _Oh_.

She suddenly realized exactly what the witch was asking for. It was her  _confidence_. The mere thought of her not being able to immediately heal in the middle of battle shook her. It was that ability she relied on the most in battle. Sure she had the strength, speed, and the skills to required to fight but it was that sense of invincibility that allowed her to strike at her opponent without hesitance and it was that that made her strong and effective in battle. It was her confidence in her regeneration ability that made her brave in the face of danger. Without it, if she got hurt, there was no way to guarantee that she would come out victorious. She could lose a limb and be disabled for as long as she lived. She could  _die._

For the first time in a long time she felt death looming not far away from her. If she gave up her regeneration ability, it would make her vulnerable. It will make her mortal... like a mere felt bile in her throat.

If she died, then so would Akemi's chance to live again. If she died, she would've failed her people. If she died, she would've failed her ancestors. If she died, her country will fall. It was her very existence that protected Rosette from the enemies who wished to conquer their land. Meine's heart felt like it was about to burst out of her chest.

_What ever the price may be, it will not be as important as bringing the prince back._

Her own words echoed in her head. That's right. She asked for this. She wanted Akemi back. She  _needed_ him back. She had no other choice.

"Well?" the witch asked.

She sighed and let her hand down, trying her best to make it stop trembling as she nodded at the witch. She watched with dread as the scar floated out of her clothes and away from her. It wasn't painful, but everything had been overwhelming and she felt a wave of despair wash over her. How was she going to survive long enough to obtain the rose and return to her world if she could die with the smallest wound?

She took a deep breath and faced forward. She wasn't about to lose her composure over ridiculous thoughts.

The witch then turned to Syaoran. "What about you? Now is the time to hand over your item of highest value. Then you will be able to travel through different dimensions."

"Okay."

"You realize that I haven't named the price yet."

"Yes…"

"The only thing I can do is send you to other worlds. Finding the child's memories is something you will have to do on your own."

"Fine."

The boy wearing glasses came back running from inside the house holding two things that looked like stuffed animals. Meine eyed the items he held. The witch had only said "those" in reference to what she wanted. And that was before they even stated their wishes. She was now certain that their arrival had been anticipated by the Dimensional Witch. Meine had to contain her smile though. Those things were obviously something important, but they looked so cute and ridiculous.

The witch took the white one with the red gem on its forehead. "The name of this young one is Mokona Modoki. This little one will take you to different dimensions, but there is no way of telling which dimension it is." The witch paused. "For that reason, only fate will decide when your wishes will be granted. However there is no coincidence in the world…there is only  _the inevitable._  What brought you together was also  _the inevitable_."

She faced Syaoran. "Your price is your relationship with Sakura."

Syaoran looked confused. "But how?"

"Even if this child's memories are restored, your relationship with her will never be the same again. If you want to accept Mokona, that relationship will end. Even if you retrieve all of her memories, the one memory that she will never be able to get back will be the memory of you. That is my price. Will you still continue?"

He nodded without hesitation. "I will not let Sakura die!"

Meine admired his determination and willingness to sacrifice anything for the sake of this girl. She looked at the unconscious girl in his arms. She must mean the world to him.

The witch nodded. "Travel between worlds is more difficult than you imagine. There are a wide variety of worlds. You may meet different versions of the same person time after time on different worlds. Just because that person is nice to you in one world doesn't mean you will find an ally in the next.

"You'll find worlds where you can't communicate, where common sense doesn't work… There are worlds full of criminals, worlds of liars, worlds locked in constant wars… That said, are you still determined to see it through?"

"Yes." Syaoran nodded.

Meine took a deep breath, the loss of her scar still sinking in. The danger she was about to face felt more real than ever. How will she survive by herself?

The witch held out the little white creature. "Sincerity and determination, no matter what a person wants to attempt, those are needed and it seems that you are provided with them both."

Somehow Meine felt that that statement was also directed at her. She tried to prepare herself, anxiety breaking through her stoic facade. She can't lose. She needs to survive. For her people.

For Akemi.

Mokona floated out of her hand and a magic circle appeared under it. It grew large white wings on its back and when it opened its mouth, a strong vacuum sucked into it. Meine found herself in a whirlpool of colors and she closed her eyes, unsure whether she had made the right decision.

 

**_-Chapter End-_ **

 


	2. II: Hanshin Republic

Meine opened her eyes slowly and found herself in a small square room with a towel draped over her shoulders. With no recollection of how she had ended up where she was, she surmised that she must have fainted while in the vortex between worlds. Her hair was still slightly wet from the rain in the witch's dimension. Sitting a few feet from her were the magician Fai and the round white creature named Mokona, who were both trying to dry off Syaoran's sleeping figure that seemed to have fainted as well. Even in his sleep, he still wouldn't let go of Sakura. On the corner of the room was Kurogane who had his head hung low and his face hidden by his headgear. His eyes were closed but Meine could tell that this warrior was not asleep.

"Ah she's up!" said a high-pitched voice that came out Mokona. The little white creature hopped towards her and landed on her knee. "Mokona tried to dry you while you were asleep."

"T-thank you…" Meine said softly and patted Mokona's head. The creature was very soft. She let Mokona jump off her knee as she used the towel over her shoulders to squeeze the water out of her hair. She noticed that Fai stood up only to sit next to her.

He smiled at her. "Hello, I'm Fai. What's your name?"

Meine has learned to be wary of suspicious men, and Fai was one of them. She could sense great power coming from him. For a moment she thought of answering him back immediately but in the end she decided to ignore him particularly because he made her feel a little nervous. The man in black seemed to be doing the same thing.

"Nee..." he said trying to get her attention by leaning forward towards her face, catching Meine off guard. She tried to hide the slight blush in her face by continuing to dry her hair. Her heart was beating so loudly and she swore that the person beside her could it as loud as a bell. This Fai was undoubtedly handsome, in fact all of them were. His skin was very pale and his eyes were an unusual bright blue, something she rarely saw in her land. It felt a bit disconcerting.

He just sat there, waiting expectantly for a response of sorts. Meine tried her best to avoid his eyes as she continued on with her task. His blue eyes sent weird shivers down her spine, her nerves urged her to move away from the cause but her body felt much too heavy for such action. She glanced at the man and decided that maybe he wasn't so bad after all. Even if he was faking his kindness, it shouldn't affect her. She had nothing to with him after all. She was about to open her mouth to introduce herself once again when Syaoran twitched.

"SAKURA!" Syaoran screamed as he woke up with a start. He was surprised to see the little white creature on his chest as it was drying his face with a white towel.

"It looks like you're up!" Fai said with a smile and moving towards the two who were lying down on the futon. "Even while you slept you wouldn't let go of the girl. We tried to dry her off but you wouldn't let go."

He sat up and set the sleeping girl on the bed. "Thank you." he said to Fai. "My name is Syaoran."

"My name's pretty long so you can just call me Fai." He wore this huge smile on his face that never seemed to disappear. He looked at Kurogane in the corner. "And that person in the corner is Mr. Black."

The seemingly sleeping figure rose and growled at the mage. "It's not "Mr. Black", its Kurogane!"

Fai turned to face Meine. He smiled warmly at her. "What will we call you, young lady? You didn't want to tell me your name earlier."

Meine spoke only when she noticed that their eyes were on her. "…Meine… My name is Meine."  _It's not that I didn't want to. You just made me too nervous to speak. Plus I was about to say something before Syaoran woke up..._ Meine added in her head, deciding against voicing the rest of her thoughts.

He smiled and turned his back on her to face Syaoran. He seemed to be staring at Syaoran's back for some reason and that got Meine curious. What is he going to do?

He suddenly reached his arm around Syaoran as if he was rummaging in his cloak in search of something.

Syaoran was obviously not expecting Fai to do this as he screamed loudly in surprise, even Kurogane sweat-dropped at the sight. Meine however was blushing at the scene in front of her. What a vulgar scene, she thought. When he pulled away from the poor boy, he held a large white feather with crimson markings printed on it.

"Is this what a piece of memory looks for this child?" he held the feather out for them to see.

Meine's eyebrows furrowed. She felt a huge wave of power coming from the feather that she didn't feel when she was alone with Syaoran in the Witch's shop. If it truly was there earlier, she wouldn't have missed a power that great. She eyed Fai suspiciously. Should he be trusted? He obviously had that feather... right?

"That's one of the feathers that flew away. This is one of Sakura's memories!" Syaoran exclaimed.

The feather floated out of Fai's hand and flew towards Sakura's chest where it entered her. Meine felt a surge of warmth from the girl and she felt more alive than she did earlier.

"Her body's a little warmer." Syaoran whispered with relief.

"If you didn't have that feather, it would've been a problem." Fai said.

"One of the feathers must have stuck to my clothes by coincidence."

Meine crossed her arms and leaned against the wall. Eyeing the blonde cautiously before closing her eyes and speaking. "There are no coincidences in this world, there is only _the inevitable_." she quoted.

Fai nodded in agreement. "That's what the Witch said, remember? My guess is you grabbed the feather unconsciously in order to save the girl. But how do we find more feathers? I doubt that we'll find more in our clothes." he smiled.

The little white creature bounced only to land on top of Syaoran's head. "Mokona knows!" All their eyes landed on it as it waved its small hands to get everyone's attention. "That feather gave out really big waves so when one is nearby, Mokona will be like this."

The little white creature's eyes opened and its mouth turned into an "O" shape that you never really expected to come out of such a cute thing. Kurogane screamed in shock, Meine was taken aback, Syaoran seemed to have frozen, and Fai didn't have any reaction. He just sat there with the same smile on his face.

"Well it looks like we have a way. If we get close to a feather, Mokona will let us know." Fai said.

"Whether or not you get to search for the feathers is up to you guys, but it has nothing to do with me." Kurogane said with a slight huff. "I came here to return to my world and that is my only purpose. I don't plan on joining or helping you because I'm not doing it." Meine thought that it was a little cold but actually quite fair. The feather business was none of their concern after all. Or was it..? She thought about it for second. Although it wasn't her business at all, she actually felt like helping Syaoran out. Maybe it was because she felt moved by his determination and the sacrifice he made to help his loved one. He was similar to her in that way. All she wanted was to get her loved one back, and it was her determination that brought her to the Witch's shop after all and the sacrifice she had made was for Akemi.

Syaoran nodded. "Yes, this is my mission. I'll do my best not to cause you any trouble."

Fai laughed loudly and gave Syaoran a pat on the back. He noticed that Kurogane glared at him and Meine. "What will the two of you do? Will you help out that brat?"

Fai just smiled. "I suppose so. Unlike you, returning to my world isn't my priority. So as long as my life is not in harm's way, I'll be helping Syaoran-kun out. There isn't anything to do anyway."

Kurogane's eyes moved to Meine which prompted her to speak. "I don't mind helping out if it makes the stay in a certain dimension faster. The more people help, the faster we might find these feathers. But my top priority is my survival." She said, offering a small smile to Syaoran when she caught his gaze. He nodded to her and Fai in thanks and understanding.

Just then, the door suddenly opened and the four of them instinctively went on defense position. A man and a woman entered the room, both carrying things in their hands. Both of them took off their shoes and left it at the step before entering the room.

"Yo!" the man greeted. "You woke up. Don't be so alert, you came from Yuuko-san's place right?"

"Yuuko-san?" Syaoran asked. He was handed a blanket by the woman which he used to cover Sakura's sleeping body.

"The Witch-neesan, the Witch of Dimensions, the Far-East Witch… She's called by a lot of names." The man said with a smile. "I'm Arisugawa Sorata."

The woman bowed her head. "I'm Arashi." she said as she was handing out tea to everyone. Meine automatically helped her pass it around to her travel companions. The tea smelled very herbal and woody.

Sorata faced Kurogane and placed both hands on his shoulders. "If you flirt with my honey, I will kill you."

"WHY IS IT ONLY ME?!" Kurogane complained with a scowl on his face. Meine snorted and then immediately tried to hide it when she realized what she had done by coughing it off. Fai's eyes darted towards her and he smiled.  _She's trying so hard to be so detached. I wonder how her real self is like?_

Sorata took Mokona into his hand. "First of all, did that Witch-neesan give you this?

"Mokona Modoki!" it exclaimed. Meine tried hard to stifle a squeal which would've been followed by a giggle. She loved cute objects, it was a guilty pleasure. And Mokona was certainly very adorable. Her eyes sparkled in obvious delight as she watched the white creature. Fai found it amusing how she was doing her best to be very stiff and formal but she's not doing a very good job at it. It was very innocent which was something Fai wasn't used to seeing.

"I heard the story from blond-niichan over there. For one thing niichan, you're a little lucky."

"In what way exactly?" Fai asked.

"Mokona has no idea which is the next world right? So, it's a happy chance that brought you to this world first." He took several steps towards the window and slid it open. "…because this is  _Hanshin Republic!_ " They were greeted by tall concrete buildings and bright neon lights. Meine's eyes widened. It resembled the ones she had seen in the Witch's world but her nerves then prevented her from absorbing the magnificence of it all. This was  _definitely_ another world.

 

* * *

 

Sorata held a hand puppet that looked just like him to explain things in a much more fun way. All their props seemed to have come from nowhere. Meine had been preoccupied with the view of Hanshin Republic that she didn't even notice them preparing for their presentation. Behind him was a big white board with some charts and a map of their world attached to it to help him with his lesson.

"You are in the Hanshin Republic, a very nice country." he said enthusiastically. "It is surrounded by seas in all sides, and some typhoons come and go sometimes but we have no earthquakes! We have a nice relationship with other countries and the economy is quite nice."

Meine turned her attention to him. She caught his last sentence and thought to herself  _'Their King must be a great person then..'_

Puppet Sorata held a long pointer in his hands and approached a chart. "We have four seasons. Right now its autumn, so the rice tastes best during this season! Mostly we use flour or our food and our tiger sauce is also famous."

Puppet Sorata donned a graduation cap, while on the side Arashi now held a puppet that looked like her. "For laws we have the constitution of Hanshin: we never make wars with other countries!" Puppet Sorata continued. "For transportation, we have cars, bicycles, motorcycles…" as he named each mode of transportation, he moved closer to Puppet Arashi. "… Ships, trains, airplanes… and maybe a baby carriage too, Honey?"

Both the puppet Arashi and the real person said nothing. The love they shared was obvious to everyone watching. Meine smiled softly, her shoulders relaxing a little bit. These people who are capable of such love wouldn't harm her.

"The country looks like that," he pointed at the country with the shape of a tiger using his pointer. "It looks like a tiger so many people call it the country of the tiger."

"The Republic has a lot of tiger stuff." he continued, showing them the flag of their country which had the silhouette of a tiger's head in the middle and their currency. "Our currency is called the  _koko_  (tiger), and our national flag also has a tiger mark. The baseball team also has a tiger mark!"

' _Baseball?'_ Meine slightly cocked her head in confusion.

Fai raised his hand which was still covered with black gloves that came with his original outfit. "May I ask a question?"

Puppet Sorata pointed his pointer at him. "Yes, Fai-kun?"

"Does everyone in your country have the same accent that you have?"  _'of all the other things to ask...'_ Meine said to herself. She decided that Fai was an odd man.

"You can call me Sora-chan." Sorata said. "The way I speak is an older version of our language."

"It was used in the old days?" Syaoran asked, his curiosity obviously piqued.

"Yeah, nowadays hardly anyone uses this language anymore, but I as a history teacher, want to keep traditions." he explained.

"You're a history teacher?" Syaoran asked again, his posture became straighter than it already was and his eyes sparkled.

"I take it you have an interest in history?"

Syaoran nodded. "In my world, I used to help in archaeological digs."

Meine was starting to like Syaoran more. She respected people who are into learning and gaining more knowledge. Knowledge is power after all. Syaoran gave Meine an impression that he was a great guy. Meine covered her mouth to hide the yawn that came through her. She had failed to notice that a lot of time has passed and now her body is saying it's bed time for her. All she wanted to do now was lie down and rest. Exploring can wait until she's well rested. She glanced over at Kurogane who was now dozing off in his corner.

"One more question." she heard Fai say. "Who owns this room?"

Sorata place both his hands on his wife's shoulders. "This is an empty traditional apartment room that my honey and I manage."

He noticed Kurogane sleeping in the corner and pointed his mighty finger at him. "Pay attention!" he said in a loud voice. An unknown force suddenly hit Kurogane at the back of his head causing the other travelers to be once again alert. Meine got on the balls of her feet at the enemy attack, her amethyst eyes flashed golden for a moment as adrenaline kicked in. Syaoran immediately used his own body to shield Sakura's.

"What was that?!" Kurogane asked, scanning the room for any other life form. "I wasn't able to sense anything…" He turned his head to glare at Sorata. "Did you throw something?!"

Fai looked serious, very much unlike his smiley self. "You're in a corner. If he had been the one who threw that, it would've hit you somewhere else. It had to come from above." Meine agreed, staying tense and alert. She was very awake all of a sudden.

Meine scanned the room herself using her other senses. Other than their presences, she didn't feel anything else. Even nothing smelled differently. Who could have possibly thrown that? She felt her fang on her lower lip and tried her best to relax herself. On the advice of the council members from home, she must not reveal that she is a vampire. Legend said that mortals who have come to visit her land before ran away in fear of her people. Their kind didn't have a good reputation among other creatures, and it would be troublesome and annoying if her companions flinched and turned pale whenever she looked at them. Not telling anyone would be the best course of action.

Sorata looked at them, dumbfounded. "What? I just used my  _kudan._ "

All four pairs of eyes set on Sorata as they all repeated the word "kudan" with confused look on their faces. Meine started to relax but she still felt on edge.

"Oh yeah, you guys are from a different dimension so you don't know about it." Sorata said. He inserted a marker into Puppet Sorata's mouth and started writing something on the white board behind him.

"Everything in this world is "haunted" by a kudan. This is how you write it."

"Oh, I see…" Kurogane murmured.

"I can't read it." Fai said with a smile. "My country doesn't use those symbols."

Even Mokona bounced on Syaoran's knee. "Mokona can read it!"

"I can read it too." Syaoran said.

Mokona turned around to look at Meine. "Can you read it Meine?"

Meine shook her head. It just looked a bunch of lines scribbled on top of one another to her.

"So Kurogane and Syaoran's worlds use kanji, but not Fai and Meine's. But for some reason, the spoken language is the same." Sorata thought aloud.

Meine raised her hand to ask her own question. Sorata kindly pointed at her and waited for her to speak. "What is this Kudan? You said it 'haunts'? Does it grant power?, is it an ability? a skill?" She asked, feeling her body relax once more as she felt she was in no danger.

"Even if you are from another dimension, you will still have a kudan." Arashi spoke. "It is neither an ability nor a skill. It is something that  _haunts,_ like what Sorata said." She paused, "It does grant power."

Meine nodded, satisfied with the answer she got.

Arashi knelt down beside Sakura. "I don't know where the fragments of Sakura-san's memories went. It could be in anyone's hands right now. You don't know if a conflict will arise from this."

She looked over at Fai and Kurogane. "You guys lost your power to fight right?"

Meine's eyes moved towards the two, she noticed that Fai's smile slightly faltered. "How did you know?"

"She used to be a miko." Soarata explained. "She has the sixth sense. But she retired because she married me."

Meine decided to ignore the word 'miko' for she did not know what it was. Asking more questions would just make this whole affair longer. She just wanted to rest.

Fai scratched the back of his head and the smile returned to his face. "I gave the Witch of Dimensions my powers."

"And that witch took my sword!" Kurogane complained.

Arashi looked at Meine, waiting for her to tell her what she paid as a price. Meine thought fast. She can't tell them that the scar the witch took were her healing powers. She kept her breathing leveled and said, "The witch took a scar that used to be here," she put her hand over her chest. "It doesn't stop me from fighting, but I'm not a very good fighter without it." That was a lie. She was a decent fighter, very good actually. But... it didn't feel right to tell them that just yet. They were more strangers than friends. And it wasn't like she was the only one hiding something.

She went back to Syaoran. "I didn't hand over any powers to her. I didn't have any magical powers or weapons to begin with."

"Maybe you are lucky." Arashi said with a smile. "…Because in conflict, kudans can be used as weapon."

"Kudans are for battle?" Syaoran inquired.

"What it is and how to use it… That's something you have to find out about yourself. To understand what a kudan is, you have to see it with your own eyes" Sorata said with his arms crossed.

"So the intro to this country is finished!" he exclaimed as he nodded to the board. He turned to Mokona and leaned forward. "Is there a feather that belongs to Sakura-chan in this country?"

"Yes." Mokona replied. "It's far away, but it's here."

"Let's look for the feather!" Sorata said to Syaoran, who nodded in reply. He looked over at the rest of the gang. "Will you guys be helping Syaoran-kun out?"

Fai smiled. "I suppose so."

"I don't mind, as long as I don't get hurt..." Meine replied. Sleep was starting to make her eyelids heavy.

"If I said that I wanted to leave, would you do it?" Kurogane rudely asked the little white creature who shook its head, its big ears moving along with the motion. "Nope, I won't leave this country until the feather is found."

Sorata nodded. "Okay then. We'll be taking care of you guys until you depart for another world." He took his wife's hands and gently squeezed it. "After all, we are in the witch's debt."

"That's very kind of you. Thank you." Meine said with the grace of a royalty. She won't forget this.

Arashi and Sorata smiled at her, "You're very welcome! You can stay here until you go to another world." He continued, dragging along Arashi and pushing the white board out of the room. "Since it's almost midnight, I'll show you to your rooms. Fai and Kurogane can stay together in a room."

"WHAT?!" Kurogane shouted.

Sorata ignored him and offered a hand to help Meine up. "You'll be staying in a room next to this, Meine-chan."

"Thank you." Meine said, taking the offered hand. She followed the other three men outside. Mokona jumped off of Kurogane's shoulders and landed on Meine's. "Mokona will sleep with Meine tonight!" it said. Meine couldn't help but hold the soft creature against her face. She's been wanting to do that every since she saw it. The creature was warmer than her to touch. It felt comforting.

She turned around to look at Syaoran and heard Arashi speak to him. "You should sleep. We don't know what could be awaiting you in this country so it's best to get some rest while you can."

Syaoran nodded. "Yes, thank you."

"Rest well, Syaoran." Meine said aloud from outside. She knew Syaoran heard it when he replied "You as well, Meine-san." She was going to be friends with him, she told herself as she moved on.

"My honey and I will protect you so relax and sleep peacefully." Sorata said over his shoulder as he opened the door for Arashi.

Arashi opened the door next to Syaoran's room and looked over at Meine and Mokona. "You can take this room."

"Thank you." Meine whispered as she took off her shoes before the step just like what Sorata and Arashi did before they entered the room before.

"Goodnight." Arashi said with a smile as she closed the door. "Sleep well."

"Thank you. You as well Arashi-san" she added, "and Sorata-san too." as she sat down on the futon that was already laid on the floor. Arashi offered her a small bow before leaving.  _'How well mannered.'_ Arashi thought, smiling.

The little white creature on her shoulder jumped off Meine and landed on the futon on the floor that was ready for her. Mokona rolled around the bed for quite some time, giggling while doing so. She walked to the window and opened it, the breeze and the sounds from outside entering the room. She looked around again. It was so bright and colorful that the piece of the dark sky that was visible between the buildings seemed incredibly black. She breathed in the air. It was cold and crisp and had an odd scent that she can't put her finger on. With one last look, she closed the window and locked it for good measure and began to remove her clothing. There was a set of pajamas on top of the futon that had been provided for her.

Meine lay down on the bed beside Mokona, who had now settled itself on the corner of the pillow. "Goodnight, Meine." Mokona whispered as it drifted off to sleep. Meine pulled the covers on top of them and patted the little white creatures head. "Goodnight, Mokona." Her head was so full of thoughts both excited and apprehensive that it took her a while before she succumbed to sleep.

* * *

Miene opened her eyes and found herself inside her old room in the castle back in Rosette. Her four-poster bed with lace curtains were there just like always. She looked around her room and found it just like it always was. She pushed away the covers and found herself still in the clothes she wore when she left for the dimensional witch's place.

Wait…

How can she be back in her old world when she was just with Mokona and the rest?

Meine jumped out of her bed, her adrenaline pumping in her veins. Her eyes turned golden as she put herself in defense position. She opened the door leading to her room and found the person she was least expecting in front of her.

Her older brother, Akemi, smiled back at her as he was leaning on the wall opposite her door. "Good morning, my adorable little sister." He said with a smile as he walked towards her. She stood there frozen, letting him engulf her in his embrace. "How are you doing today?"

Meine froze; her blood sizzled under her skin. Her mind was sharp and clear and she could tell everything around her was wrong. She wasn't back at her own world, and this wasn't her beloved brother's touch. She would know if it was truly him. This was something else.

She pushed away, her sharp nails extending to become claws as she scratched the being who was pretending to be Akemi. Suddenly, everything around her disappeared and was eaten by the creeping darkness.

"What the-?!" she exclaimed as she watched her surroundings disappear. She noticed her hands in front of her. She wondered how she can still see herself in pure darkness.

A black orb which emitted a purplish glow materialized a few feet away from where Meine was standing. It expanded and took the form of a tall figure wearing a hooded cape.

"Who…?" Meine asked, lowering her arms as it became clear to her that she was not in any danger. She saw that the creature didn't have any features; it was just darkness under the hood. "What are you?"

"I am the master of those who control the power of the shadows. I have the power to conceal myself in the darkness and take the shape of any form that my master wishes me to be." The hooded cape explained. "I have been waiting for quite some time for a being who is powerful enough to control a kudan like myself. Do you desire power?"

Meine thought back to what Arashi told her. Having a powerful kudan will certainly aid her, especially after she had lost her ability to regenerate. Having a kudan who can move through the shadows and take any form that she wants would be very useful. That will allow her to attack from afar without having to expose herself to danger.  _Pathetic,_ her brain added. She frowned. This was very cowardly and it wasn't what she was used to at all but what other choice does she have? She has to survive no matter what.

"Yes." She answered, grinding her teeth in frustration with herself.

"To keep me and get the power, do you wish to do that?"

"Yes." she repeated. "I need power in order to protect myself and survive in this world." It pained her to say these words. She had power but without her healing powers, she's very vulnerable. This was not something she was used to  _at all._

The hooded cape swiftly moved forward and entered Meine through her chest, the same way that Sakura absorbed the feather. It felt warm, really warm. From there the warmth spread through her arms and her legs. It was not a pleasant experience.

Meine opened her eyes with a start and found herself back inside the room provided for her in the Republic of Hanshin. She found Mokona sleeping peacefully beside her and occasionally saying the word "puu" for some reason. Mokona's adorableness calmed her down. It was as though the creature chose to be with her tonight because it knew she needed comfort. She snuggled her face against it's fluffiness as she slowly drifted right back to sleep.

Her hand unconsciously went to her chest and touched the area where the kudan entered her. She could swear that she felt something move inside her. That was the last thought she had before everything went blank.

 

* * *

 

Meine and the rest of the gang stood outside the apartment building together with Arashi and Sorata. They all wore clothes that were worn in the Hanshin Republic.

Fai pretended to whistle when Meine stepped out of the front doors of the building. "Meine-chan looks so cute in that outfit!" She chose to ignore the comment but could feel heat from her cheeks as stood between Kurogane and Syaoran. She wore was in a baby pink, long sleeved top topped with a black vest, a black ruffled skirt with pink petticoat lining underneath, black knee-high socks and black boots that reached up to her knees. She also had a pink bow on her hair to keep her hair back in a ponytail. Arashi and a very excited young female tenant dressed her that morning. Arashi told her that the girl saw her during breakfast and asked her to be introduced to Meine. She said something about the young woman being a ' _stylist for models'_ whatever that was. Meine actually liked what she was wearing. A little too pink for her taste, but it was cute.

Fai took notice of the way the color pink made Meine seem more innocent. It made him just a little bit more intrigued to see what lay beneath her mask of stoic grace.

"You four!" Sorata said in a loud voice to call their attention as he exited the building. "There's no use staying inside. If you want to find Sakura-chan's feathers, why don't you go out and take a look around?"

"Alright." Fai and Mokona said in unison. Meine silently agreed.

"Walk around, and then you'll understand what 'Kudan' is." Sorata said.

Meine noticed that Syaoran was glancing every now and then at the window of the room where Sakura was sleeping. Arashi noticed this too.

"Don't worry." She told him. "I'll take care of Sakura-san."

"I'm sure she will be safe." Meine added, resting a comforting hand on Syaoran's shoulder. He seemed to loosen up a bit.

"Thank you, Meine-san." He smiled. Meine offered him a smile in return. She definitely was going to get along with this person.

"Do we have to bring the white thing?" Kurogane grunted. Meine watched him, thinking to herself how alpha Kurogane's presence was. He must've been an army general or something like that back in his country.  _'Well at least he's acting like himself, unlike someone...'_ Meine found her thoughts drifting to Fai again. She knew he was hiding behind that smile of his. There was no happiness behind his smile and that made her want to see what's underneath his happy facade. Meine was completely unaware of how much she paid attention to him.

"Bring Mokona with you. Otherwise, you won't know if a feather is nearby. Don't worry, no one will mind Mokona. All sorts of weird things already happen in this city." Sorata said. He rummaged through his pockets and pulled out a frog-shaped coin purse. He placed this on Meine's hand. "There's enough money for the four of you to buy lunch. So you guys go eat lunch together like good little boys and girls do." The purse felt oddly light in Meine's hand making her wonder what sort of currency they had. Back in her world they used gold, silver, and select jewels as currency.

She felt a little bit smug that she had been given the responsibility of holding their money. She placed the purse in her pocket for safe keeping before they headed out to the city. Fai smiled at her obvious glee.

They walked towards the direction Sorata pointed to be the main area, weaving through the groups of people who walked back and forth and going on their own separate directions. Buildings of every size can be seen everywhere they looked. Meine felt a little closed in as she was used to wide and open spaces. Still, that didn't decrease the excitement she was feeling. This world seemed safe as far as she could tell so she allowed herself to put her guard down to enjoy the experience.

"It's crowded." Fai said loudly but only the other three and Mokona can hear it. "Tall buildings mingle with small buildings… Have you ever seen this kind of scenery before, Syaoran-kun, Meine-chan?"

"No." Syaoran said as he shook his head a little so that the little white creature on top of his head wouldn't fall off.

Meine shook her head too as her eyes moved from side to side, taking in the exhilarating scene. Everything was so new it almost seemed like a threat. She felt a little glad that she had her own group to travel with. She couldn't even imagine what she would have done if she was going through this alone.

"And how about you, Kuro-tan?" Fai's voice pierced Meine's thoughts and she shook her head slightly as if to get rid of unnecessary thoughts.

"No! And don't you dare call me by those weird nicknames!" he shouted so loud that some people who passed by looked at him. Meine found his lack of restrain amusing. She didn't use to see this back in her country. Everyone around her showed great restraint as a sign of respect. She was, after all, royalty.

They continued to walk forward until they ended up to what appeared to be the market of the city. Stores that sold food and other perishable goods lined up the half the street. Meine's heart sped up in excitement as she caught a whiff of the sweet scent coming from the fruits.

She started to walk a little faster than the rest without noticing it. The three men watched their female companion look around in enchantment. She seemed to be the youngest of them, aside from Sakura who was still asleep. Meine reminded Syaoran of Sakura a little, they both shared the same innocent excitement. She was also a princess just like Sakura, though Syaoran wondered if she was just as carefree as his princess. Meine appeared to be a little more restrained and poised than Sakura.

They passed by a store which sold fruits and a man who was inside called their attention. "Welcome!" he said in a booming voice. "Would you want to buy some apples?"

Meine was the first one to stop and look at what the man held. The rest of the group followed suit, gathering at her side to take a look.

The four of them stared at the round, red fruit in the man's hand.

"That's an apple?" Syaoran asked.

"Of course it is!" said the man with a smile.

Meine stared at the apple with utter fascination. In her world, apples were yellow and they were quite sour. This world's apples were red as rubies and they smelled sweet. She wanted to have a taste of it...

The man noticed Meine staring and leaned forward to her. "Would you like an apple, young lady?" he offered with much energy.

Meine nodded her head enthusiastically, having forgotten about her companions who happened to be observing her. Her change of behavior was interesting. She first came across to them as someone stoic and inherently distrustful. At the moment, she looked more like an ecstatic child than anything. It was pleasing to watch her let her guard down around them.

A sharp pain shot through Syaoran's heart as the recent memory of Sakura happily holding a fruit in the market surfaced in his mind. He missed her terribly. Meine's presence provided him a certain warmth, and he was thankful for it. He quickly shook off the thought and focused back on the red apple. Meine's excitement rubbed off on him.

The man said with a wide smile, "I sell only the best fruits in the whole market!" The neighboring stall shot him a dirty look.

"Meine-chan seems to really want some." Fai said with a smile in a tone that was almost teasing. "Do you want some too Kuro-rin~?"

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!"

This started a discussion between Fai and Kurogane about what an apple looks like in their own worlds, Syaoran joined in the conversation (though it was more like an argument now). Meine failed to notice them as she continued to stare at the apple.

"What do you think, Mokona?" Meine asked when the creature jumped on her shoulder.

Mokona raised its hand. "Buy!"

"We'll take five please!" Meine said and looked at the man with huge eyes. She loved sweets, loved it to the extent that she could eat about ten to twenty slices of cakes by herself... though the others didn't need to know that.

The man took five apples from the basket, placed it inside a paper bag and handed it to Meine in exchange for the money that Sorata gave her for safe keeping. Their currency was made out of paper which Meine found odd. It didn't seem very valuable, but this is another world after all. Things do work differently here than in her world.

The man tossed in another apple in the bag as they were about to leave.

Meine stared at the man and then back to the apple. The man laughed at her expression. "That's for you young lady! Consider it a gift from me!"

She smiled and bowed her head. "Thank you very much!" she exclaimed.

The men had stopped arguing when Meine paid for their apples. Fai and Syaoran exchanged friendly smiles as they witnessed the adorable scene. Meine was acting very cute. If this was the real her, Syaoran is going to get along with her just fine. He was sure that Sakura would like her as well.

Mokona stayed on Meine's shoulder and looked at the apples in the bag that she held in her arms.

They decided to eat their apples on the bridge where they had a scenic view of the area. Underneath them was a river that flowed almost lazily. In the distance was a tall tower, the word Hanshin written on it. It was noisy and positively bustling with life. They went to an empty corner and took an apple each from the bag. At the count of three, they all took a bite.

"Apples taste good!" Fai said with a smile.

Meine nodded in agreement as she happily took a huge bite. It was so juicy! The sweetness and the tartness of the apple exploded in her mouth with each bite.

"But we really are from different worlds…" he continued. "We each have our own version of apples in our own world."

They all ate their apples, looking around and observing their surroundings as they did so. It was Fai who broke the silence after everyone finished their apples and Meine was halfway through her second.

"How did you get to the Dimensional Witch's place, Syaoran-kun? You said you didn't know any magic."

"I was sent by the High Priest in my country." Syaoran replied.

"Ah! That priest must be really something. It's not easy to transport even just a single person yet he managed to send two people at the same time! How about you, Meine-chan?"

Meine swallowed her apple and wiped her mouth politely before answering. "I arrived to the witch's place the same as Syaoran. The High Priest back in my country sent me there."

"I see… who sent you to the witch's place, Kuro-rin?"

Kurogane flinched at the nickname. "I was forcefully sent there by the princess of my country."

Fai laughed together with Mokona. Meine could not hide her amused smile effectively behind the fruit in her hand. "You must have done something bad and you're being punished!" An angry Kurogane flailed his arms at the magician.

"What about you?" Meine asked, tilting her head slightly. Fai found this adorable. "Who sent you to the Dimensional Witch's shop?"

Fai smiled as he leaned against the railing of the bridge. "I went there on my own." He looked somehow cool.

Kurogane glared at him. "Then why did you ask the dimensional witch for help when you could've just travelled between the worlds by yourself?"

"I can't! Even with all my power, I can only transport myself into another world once." Fai said in a tone that made it seem like it was just common sense for everybody. "The people who transported you all have very strong magical powers. But even if they used all of their power, I suppose they can only transport someone into another world once. That's why the priest transported Syaoran-kun to where the Dimensional Witch is. In order to get all of Sakura-chan's feathers that contain her memories, we have to travel to different worlds and the only one who has the power is the Witch of Dimensions."

Just then, a loud shriek that came from down the street was heard and they saw people running away from that direction. Meine noticed a group of people who wore goggles over their eyes and stood on top of the buildings. There was another group on the ground who wore caps and they seemed to be fighting with the group who was above them. The scene just spelled trouble in every way.

"We'll get you this time for sure! This is our territory!" shouted the leader of the cap-wearing group.

The leader of the group wearing goggles that stood in front of the group stuck his hand fist out, thumb pointing down. Bystanders ran away, dragging along their children and their loved ones.

"Just because you have a  _high level_  kudan doesn't mean you get to be so cocky!" shouted a member of the cap-wearing group.

Meine felt something move inside her chest, it was like something twitched inside her when she heard the word kudan. The kudan within her was reacting to the scene.

The leader of the goggle-wearing group raised his arm above his head and his members behind him jumped off the building to attack, creatures of different shapes and sizes appearing on their arms out of nowhere. The opposing group below also had the creatures appear on their arms as they engaged into battle. Beams of light came out of the creatures and were aimed at the enemy. It took Meine a while to realize that these things were actually the thing they called  _kudan_.

"So that's a kudan?" Kurogane asked, unshaken by the panic around him as he had his hands inside his pockets. Even Fai was relaxed and didn't seem to care. These two were used to battle, she thought. There's no way someone with no combat experience can be so relaxed in the middle of chaos. Unless they're idiots, which these two didn't seem to be.

"No wonder Mokona didn't scare anyone even though he can move around." Fai said, he discreetly shielded Meine from the people who were running away. Though touched by the gesture, Meine wasn't the damsel-in-distress type. She had been raised to fight for herself. Although, she did just relinquish her healing abilities. If she got seriously hurt, it would be a big problem. She tended to be a bit careless in dangerous situations because she had the power to heal immediately. But things are different now...

Some of the beams of light hit the buildings causing debris collapse and fall on the sidewalk. The bystanders who happened to be standing there covered their heads and ran away screaming.

A tall kudan in a shape of a humanoid appeared and leaped to attack the leader of the group on top of the building. He didn't move from his spot. Meine could see that he even smirked before giving them another thumbs down through her heightened senses. As a vampire, she had a very clear eyesight that can see clearly even from afar.

His kudan appeared in a form of a large manta ray and had the powers of water, unlike the other people who just had beams of light come out from their own kudans. This was clearly more powerful than the other kudan flying about. His kudan opened its mouth and a huge wave of water gushed out from its open maw, washing away his enemies. It was quite enjoyable to watch from the sidelines.

Syaoran noticed two boys running away. One of them slipped in a puddle of water caused by the leader's kudan. Meine noticed too late that Syaoran ran to help them and tried to stop him, only to be stopped herself by Fai who held his arm out and blocked her way. Fai smiled at her and mouthed the words "let's just see what happens". Meine was uncomfortably happy to comply.

"Watch out!" Syaoran shouted and jumped to cover the two boys from another wave. A huge ball of flames with an orange wolf within it appeared above Syaoran and the water instantly evaporated and turned to steam. He glared at the man on top of the building. Meine gasped and ran forward to get a better look.

"Looks like you have a high level kudan too!" the leader said with a smug smile. Meine felt her own kudan stirring within her. Was her kudan itching to fight? It was a peculiar feeling.

The big, flaming, orange wolf landed on the ground beside Syaoran and stood in front of him as if to protect its master.

"A kudan that manipulates fire…" the leader thought aloud. "I'm water and you're fire… This is fun."

Syaoran stepped in front of the two boys together with his own kudan. Another huge wave came when the leader's kudan opened its mouth. This time, Syaoran was surrounded by a wall of flames.

"I'm Asagi Shougo." The leader said. "What's your name?"

"…Syaoran."

"I like you now." he said with a smile.

A loud wailing siren cut through the air. Meine blocked her ears and winced in pain. Whatever the sound is coming from, it was coming closer. Keeping her palms pressed against her ears in an attempt to block our the noise, she saw the group of hoodlums scramble to get away from the scene. With a last word to Syaoran, the leader named Shougo jumped on his kudan and flew away. Syaoran's wolf kudan transormed into a ball of flame and entered through his chest.

"Oi kid, are you alright?" Kurogane asked after noticing Meine's distress. This caught Fai's attention. He turned to her and placed his hands on her shoulders.

"Meine-chan what's wrong?" he asked, worry present in his voice.

"That sound hurts my ears a lot..." She whimpered, squeezing her eyes closed in pain. It was making her dizzy.

Fai placed his hands over Meine's as though he was trying to provide her extra protection. He closed his eyes and then suddenly it didn't hurt anymore. She slowly opened her eyes. Fai's face was ridiculously close to hers. She could feel the warmth of his soft breath on her face. She blushed and slightly pulled away instinctively. "W..what did you do?"

The blonde smiled at her as he dropped his hands back to his side. Meine immediately missed the warmth his hands provided. "It's okay now. I don't think it will hurt as much anymore."

Meine hesitantly removed her hands from her ears. Fai was right, it didn't hurt anymore. In fact, the sirens sounded far away. She blinked at him in confusion. He did something and whatever it was, it helped her a lot. "Thank you..." She muttered, unaware of the blush spreading across her face as Fai looked at her.

"Feel better now?" Kurogane asked again. Meine's heart softened at his concern.  _'So they actually care.'_ She thought, smiling as she nodded in response. Kurogane's eyebrows, which were furrowed this whole time, loosened for a moment and then returned back to it's place. He grunted in acknowledgement before walking toward Syaoran.

Meine followed Fai and Kurogane as they made their way towards him. She watched them with gratitude.

"You were great, was that all you Syaoran-kun?" Fai asked with a smile. It was all muffled to Meine who still couldn't fully concentrate because of the siren. She realized that there was hardly any sound as loud as this in Rosette. Perhaps it was because this would happen to everyone with sensitive hearing. Who knew that sensitive hearing would be a weakness. More gratitude swelled inside her as she thought of the headache she would've had right now if it weren't for Kurogane and Fai.

Standing next to them and not really hearing anything, Meine watched the two boys that Syaoran had just helped. Something was strange about the smaller boy together with the teenage boy that Syaoran helped. The smaller boy felt... empty. Then something shifted in the background that made her jump. It was her own shadow that had made her jump. It changed to the form of her kudan but quickly returned back to her silhouette. The sound of the sirens were fainter now, but the babble of people surprised her as well. She rubbed her ears. It would take some time to get used to this noisy place.

"He disappeared!" she heard Syaoran shout in surprise. She noticed that the smaller boy was missing.

"Oh, that was also a kudan!" Fai said in surprise.

No wonder the boy felt different than the rest of them. "That boy was a kudan too?"

"Anything's possible…" Kurogane, who stood next to her, muttered.

"Anyway, what happened to that kudan of ours?" Fai said as he looked around for a little round white ball with a red gem on its forehead.

Meine sighed and helped look around only to see Mokona surrounded by a group of girls who were all hugging and cuddling the little white creature. Kurogane lightly pushed her towards the group and motioned her with a small grunt to get Mokona back. Meine sweat-dropped as she chuckled half-heartedly.

"Where were you, Mokona?" Fai asked as Meine brought Mokona back to their group. Fai raised a questioning brow at the state of Meine's hair and clothing. He could've sworn she looked more polished than that earlier. Meine just sighed in reply.

"Mokona was on top of Kurogane, then he threw me off…" the cute creature explained. Shifting back Fai's attention to it. It bounced to Syaoran's head lightly and leaned forwards and flapped its arms up and down. "And Mokona went like this!" It opened its eyes and its mouth formed into a "O" shape, saying the word "Mekkyo!"

"Sakura's feather is nearby?!" Syaoran asked, pulling Mokona to and holding it in his hands. Mokona shook its whole body sadly. Even Meine felt disappointed.

"It's difficult to figure out who was there a few minutes ago…" Fai said.

Syaoran tried to put a smile on his face and to be optimistic. "But the fact that we know someone has it is good." That made Meine feel better too.

The boy who Syaoran had just saved approached meekly and gave him a low bow. "Thank you very much for saving me." he said. "My name is Saitou Masayoshi. Please allow me to do something in order to repay you for saving me."

Syaoran tried to decline the offer but Mokona suddenly jumped on top of his head and exclaimed. "Mokona wants lunch! Something really good!"

"Ah." Meine blurted out. It was just then when she realized that she was actually hungry. She immediately covered her mouth when she noticed that she said that out loud.

Masayoshi nodded and led them to a shop where they sold food which they called "okonomiyaki".

 

* * *

 

The five of them (including Mokona) stared at the pancakes in front of them. It was one of those shops where they cook the food in front of you so there was a stove on top of the table. Meine was fascinated by the table. She has never seen anything like it and she wondered if she could have someone back in her country create something similar to it.

"This is…?" Syaoran asked.

"I like this okonomiyaki the best here!" Masayoshi said.

"This is called okonomiyaki?" Fai asked. Meine poked her own pancake cooking in front of her. It had green strips of what she could only assume were cabbages and other things she didn't recognize at all. She sniffed at it and watched it as the edges browned and the surface began to bubble. She immediately stopped when she heard Fai laugh softly next to her. He was watching her with such a gentle look in his eyes.

"Okonomiyaki is the main food here in Hanshin Republic," Masayoshi explained. "If you don't know, does that means you're from outside of Hanshin?"

Fai placed his head on his hands and smiled his usual smile. "You can say that." the boy looked at him, confused. He then decided to change the subject. "Do those people always fight over there?"

Masayoshi looked down. "That… They want to test their strength. They form teams and compete to see who has the stronger kudan. There are bad teams and there are good teams. The good teams watch for people not to get violent in the property, and they fight the bad guys."

"What about the team that came here?" Syaoran inquired.

"The ones in caps are the bad guys! But the ones with goggles are different! When they fight with the other teams, he only destroys a few buildings, and when the adults get mad, he doesn't do anything bad to them unlike the other teams." Masayoshi clearly likes this group is goggles. Meine couldn't help but snort in indignation however. Good or not, they had destroyed the buildings. She poked at her okonomiyaki moodily and let her thoughts wander, not listening as Masayoshi explained the kudan rankings. She watched as Kurogane picked up the spatula on the plate in front of him and lifted the edge.

"WAIT!"

Meine and Kurogane jumped. Two servers who carried trays appeared in front of them, one with dark hair and another with grayish blond hair. Meine turned her head towards them, eyes wide in surprise.

Suddenly Syaoran stood up and looked at them with shock all over his face. "Your Majesty?! Why is the king here? The High Priest too!"

The dark haired man who wore a name tag looked back at him, confused and a little pissed. Their name tags were written in this kanji that Sorata had written on the board from last night. She frowned slightly, not liking how she was basically illiterate in this world.

"I think you are mistaken," said the dark haired employee. "I am not this person who you referred as "King." It's Touya." He tapped on his name tag before looking down on Kurogane who still had his arm up. "And sir, we do the flipping for you when it's ready so please don't do anything and wait."

"O-okay…" he replied and lowered his arm. Meine chuckled faintly, earning her a playful glare from the warrior.

"He was a king in your country?" Fai whispered to Syaoran. "And the other one with him is the priest?"

"Yes…" Syaoran whispered.

"It's like the Witch of Dimensions said. You might meet someone from another world, but in different worlds they have different lives." Fai said, lost in thought. "But at the same time their "connections" are the same."

"Connections?" Meine questioned.

Fai put his fingers together and made a heart shape. "The place of their lives, their name, their heart…"

"You mean their soul?" Kurogane grunted.

Meine looked down as Fai's words sunk into her mind. If there truly was a person in another world that has the same soul of the ones that you have met, then that means somewhere in this world, there is a person who looks like Akemi and is walking around alive and well. That thought made Meine want to find that person. But it also made her sad in a way; this world still had Akemi, while hers didn't anymore. If it was the same soul, she wondered if this world's Akemi is going to be just like her world's Akemi.

The six of them ate their okonomiyaki's while Masayoshi further explained the meanings of kudans and other stuff to know about Hanshin that Sorata wasn't able to explain. When they finished, they left again to search for the feather. Meine felt satisfied from her lunch but she couldn't help but crave for some sweets after her meal. She was used to having some dessert every after meal. She looked around for something to distract herself with.

As soon as they stepped out of the okonomiyaki store, Meine noticed a group of men with mohawks were watching them, particularly at Fai and Syaoran. No one other than her seemed to notice. She thought nothing of it and followed the others. Masayoshi made them wait on a certain spot by a tall pillar so that he can call his parents and accompany their group around town as their guide. It was easier with someone who actually lived in this dimension instead of going around and getting lost.

"So, Syaoran-kun…" Fai said. "When we stopped talking before, you mentioned that you had a dream?"

Syaoran nodded. "That thing that came out of me was in a dream about a fire beast."

"I had a strange dream with a beast in it as well." Kurogane said over his shoulder. He had walked over to the store that he has been staring at for quite some time now.

"I saw one too." Fai said. "We even talked for a bit."

"Me too." Meine added. "Mine wasn't a beast though." She thought of the black hooded figure she encountered in her dreams. It wasn't quite a beast though it felt just as powerful as one.

As Fai was about to open his mouth to ask more about it, a fat man wearing dark glasses and a v-shaped mohawk stepped forward to them. "Who is the boy called Syaoran?!"

"Is there something wrong?" Fai asked, stepping forward to create a barrier between the man and Meine. He felt oddly protective of her.

"Are you the man Shougo said he liked?" he asked the blond. Fai just continued to smile at him. "What if I am?"

The people around them walked away hurriedly and made space, sensing trouble. Meine felt a touch of worry for Fai.

Syaoran stepped forward. "I am Syaoran." He said firmly.

The man in charge looked back at his underlings. "This kid? Really?" The tall lanky man to his right nodded. His mohawk was not as high as the fat man's. "It's true! There's no mistake." He glared at Syaoran. "Are you going to join Shougo's team?!"

Their hair reminded Meine of broomsticks. She had the sudden urge to sweep the floor with them.

"Team?"

"Don't play dumb with me!" The man shouted at him. "Shougo says he likes you! You've a special kudan! If you're going to join Shougo's team I won't show mercy!" He pointed his stubby finger at Syaoran. Meine felt offended by the disrespect they were showing Syaoran.

"I'm not joining."

"Then you'll join our team?" The man asked, hopeful. The people behind him made noises of assent.

"No." he said firmly. "I have something else to do so..."

The mohawk gang began to shake with rage. "So you intend to make your own team!" he screamed furiously. This group was very emotional that Meine couldn't help but openly laugh at them, this seemed to anger them even more.

Syaoran tried to say no but the mohawk gang was obviously not going to listen. He screamed angrily. "I'm going to rip you to shreds!" Suddenly, his huge kudan appeared above him. The creature was like a ball of spikes with a long sharp tail that when it swung its tail to attack Syaoran, it sliced the pillar behind them in half. Syaoran easily evaded the attack by ducking down. Quick as lightning, Kurogane had Meine hoisted over his shoulder and jumped away at a safe distance. His speed had surprised even her. Fai had followed, only he was covered with a thin layer of dust. Though fast himself, Kurogane was obviously faster.

Again, Meine was being protected. She had literally been whisked out of harms way. She didn't like the feeling. The feeling of helplessness didn't sit well with her. She wiggled and lightly tapped Kurogane's back to be put down. She muttered her thanks when he gently put her down, smoothing her skirt down to hide her blushing face.

"I see they're not gonna listen." Fai said, amused. He was about to take a step forward when Kurogane threw a hand up.

"I'm getting a little bored." Kurogane said loudly, stepping into the battle field. "I'll be your opponent."

Meine considered fighting the fat man bullying Syaoran. The way he spoke was getting on her nerves. But she had to be careful. This man's kudan was first class and evidently powerful. She bit her lip and crossed her arms. She hated feeling useless. Her kudan shifted inside her, agitated that she chose not to fight. She knew she could take him on but the loss of her scar shackled her down. She couldn't bring up the courage to willingly put herself at risk. She felt ashamed.

"But, Kurogane-san. You gave your sword to that person." said Syaoran.

"That's true, that blade was special." He stood between Syaoran and the man. He looked strong and sturdy. Meine could see that his shoulders were relaxed, almost at ease that he was about to enter a battle without a weapon. "This kudan though is a magical thing, no?"

"You!" screamed the fat man in front of him. He was pointing his finger again. "What level is your kudan?!"

"How should I know?" Kurogane spat. "I have no interest in that. If you want to know more then come at me."

"You bastard, you dare question the power of my first class kudan?!"

Masayoshi came running back and began explaining the situation. To Meine, however, her instincts were screaming at her to run as far away as possible to not get hurt. It was unlike her. She liked to be in the thick of things. But she was no better than a human now. She had lost her trump card. She took a step back and accidentally stepped on Fai's foot. He held her shoulders to keep her in place. He bent down to whisper in her ear.

"It wouldn't be fair to run away and hide, Meine-chan. He'll get mad you know, Kuro-tan." His voice was kind and gentle but it felt like a punch to Meine's ego. She stopped the urge to cry from frustration and stepped away from him. Fai sensed the hurt he caused her. The girl was clearly distressed for a whole other reason other than the battle in front of them. He suddenly felt guilty.

"I wasn't trying to run away! I can fight for myself." she told him bitterly. But even to her, her retort was weak and that made her angrier. She felt that she had to prove herself somehow... but she was scared, a feeling she hadn't felt in a long time. She felt detached from everything. It took her all her willpower to stop angry tears from welling from her eyes. She discretely wiped away a stray tear in the pretense of fixing her hair. She took a deep breath and rashly decided to help. She was about to take a step forward to assist him when a large blue dragon appeared before them. She froze.

"What!?" Kurogane looked equally shocked. "You were the one in my dream..."

Before him the dragon became water and turned into a sword in front of him.

"S-so that's your kudan?" The man was trying to look brave but he was visibly rattled by the appearance of a dragon in their midst. Kurogane evidently had a special class kudan like Syaoran as well. "It doesn't seem as strong as it looks!"

Kurogane moved very fast. With one swing of his new kudan-sword, the enemy's kudan was split in half and disintegrated. The mohawk gang leader screamed in pain and collapsed. His team huddled around him. He raised his shaky finger in the air once again. "You... you already made a team... You are in team "Syaoran" aren't you?"

"Who's in whose team?" he coolly snorted and swung his blade to rest it on his shoulder. "I'm only going to serve one person in my whole life, and that person is Princess Tomoyo."

His shaky finger fell to his side as he fainted, utterly defeated.

Kurogane just grunted.

 

* * *

 

"We're back!" Syaoran said as they entered the room where Sakura lay asleep. Arashi who was sitting patiently beside Sakura stood up to greet them. At the exact same moment, Sorata came running to the room and demanded a kiss from Arashi, who gave him a huge bump on the head instead.

After a few minutes of explaining everything to Sorata, while Mokona talked to Arashi about the big bump on Sorata's head...

"I see. You felt something but it disappeared…" he thought aloud. "And when Syaoran-kun was in danger, a flaming wolf appeared out of him."

Syaoran nodded. Meine was handed a change of clothes by Arashi but instead of changing her tattered clothes, she sat there, her head hung low and listened to what Sorata-san was saying. She was still quite troubled by what happened, which Fai took notice of and was immediately noticed by Kurogane when he took a glance at her. Syaoran seemed to sense it too but he didn't know what caused it.

"And it seems that Meine-chan and Kurogane possesses one as well." Sorata said with a smile.

"How do you know?" Kurogane asked.

As soon as the talk about history started, Meine excused herself to change in the other room. Even if she moved to another room, she can still hear the conversation in the other room thanks to her vampire nature.

It's not like she was interested in what they were saying anyway. It was history, the one particular subject she never really liked. Even the teacher back in her world had to force history down her throat. The only one who could really teach her history was her older brother Akemi…

In the other room, Meine heard Arashi speak and she stopped. She found out just recently that when Arashi speaks, it's often about something important.

"You felt the feather's presence but you lost it, you say?" she asked someone. Meine was pretty sure it was Mokona. "If it's just there or someone just had it, then we can somehow follow what was felt. But what if the one who has it is able to appear and disappear?"

Meine froze. " _Of course!"_ she thought. " _The feather is inside a kudan! Why haven't I thought of that before!?"_  No wonder the feeling of the kudan before disappeared immediately when the people started to run away when they heard the police siren.

"Sakura-san's feathers are like really strong crystals of her spirit." she heard Arashi explain. "Kudans are things that control the spirit. If the spirit is strong, the kudan will be stronger."

"So for now…" Fai said. "Finding someone with a strong kudan is a pathway to Sakura-chan's feathers."

When the topic ended, Meine stopped listening too and continued on changing into a long-sleeved, button-down shirt and a long skirt similar to Arashi's. She focused on the steps one by one to keep her thoughts away from Akemi. It was something she learned from a childhood friend to help reduce anxiety. Just focus on every little thing she needs to do to accomplish her current task. She decided to let her hair down today instead of tying it up like she usually does. Somehow the curtain her hair provided around her face made her feel safe.

She heard the people in the other room shuffle around the room. The next thing she knew, someone was knocking lightly on her door.

She opened the door and saw Fai standing with a smile on his face. "Hello, Meine-chan." He said. Meine's heart squeezed when her thoughts drifted back to what Fai said to her earlier about running away. It wasn't her intention to run, but that's exactly how it came across to him. She felt ashamed.

Meine nodded sullenly and moved aside to let the man in. He moved and sat himself in the middle of the empty room and smiled. "Are you okay?"

"What do you mean?" Meine asked as she walked towards him to sit down.

She gasped when Fai suddenly reached for her hand and pulled her down on his lap. Meine's face turned crimson as Fai leaned forward until their faces were merely inches apart and his hands busied themselves with playing with her hair, but she was barely aware of it. Back in her world, anyone who ever did this to her without her consent would be imprisoned.

There was genuine worry in his eyes and it made Meine's heart beat loudly against her chest. This has never happened before in her life. "You were hurt." he said, letting his thumb run down a small cut that was slightly sore. For a moment she thought Fai meant that she was hurt by his words. Her heart fell in disappointment. But it wasn't Fai's fault he was unaware that his words actually cut through her. Meine wouldn't hold that against him.

Though the truth was, Fai actually meant to apologize about hurting her feelings but he opted not too. He didn't want to get too personal too early. So he chose to change his statement in the middle of saying it.

It took a while for Meine to find her voice because she was mesmerized by Fai's sparkling blue eyes. "I-it's just a scratch!" she said, pushing away lightly. Fai let go of her and allowed her to move away. He wasn't exactly an expert on how to comfort girls as he's never really been around one before, at least not someone as intriguing as Meine. There was just something about her that captured his fascination. Perhaps it was the air of innocence she had, or the fact that she couldn't hide what she was feeling despite trying so hard. She was so animated, so alive. Fai wanted to see more.

The blonde smiled and took out a bandage from his pocket. "I got it from Arashi-san. She told me that I could keep it just in case." Meine stared at Fai as he wrapped the cut with the bandage, cutting the paper with his teeth.

"There… feel better now?" he asked with a smile.

Once again Meine found herself blushing as she turned around and stomped out of the room. "I didn't ask for your help!"

Fai chuckled to himself. He was glad to provide her a little pick me up and something else to think about.

She quickly ran down the stairs and went down to the kitchen where Kurogane was being ordered by Sorata to prepare some stuff. Arashi stood behind the counter, cooking something.

Sorata looked up. "What's wrong, Meine-chan? You're face is red…"

Meine immediately walked towards Arashi and shook her head. "…It's nothing."

Arashi giggled.

 

* * *

 

The next day, the four of them went back to the main proper of Hanshin Republic to once again search for Sakura's feather. This time, Meine was given a turtle neck black sweater and matching black shorts to wear. She kindly refused the heeled slippers that the young stylist woman was offering to her. Instead, she wore her the same black boots that she wore yesterday. This time, the stylist tied her hair using a long black ribbon. She was so weirdly happy and eager to dress Meine up. It made her feel a little nostalgic as the woman reminded her of her lady in waiting back in Rosette. Meine missed their daily chats as she got dressed up in the morning.

They searched around for kudans as they walked around.

"As I thought, everyone doesn't walk around with their kudan out." Fai said as he searched the crowd.

Kurogane grunted and place both his hands on his hips. "Even if we find a kudan with the feather, will it give up the feather that easily?"

Meine and Syaoran were too busy with their task of looking for a kudan that they failed to notice a small boy in oriental clothing with his body half-way out of the wall of a building.

Syaoran and Meine screamed when they saw the boy, who bowed low at the sight of the four of them. His skin was actually white and that made Meine feel very unsettled, it just seemed way too unnatural. His black beady eyes didn't help his case.

Meine looked down the road and noticed Saitou Masayoshi running towards their direction. "Syaoran-kun!" he called. "Did you find what you needed?" As soon as he stopped in front of his kudan, it disappeared and returned back to its master. "If not, please let me guide you again! Today is Sunday so I'm free for the whole day."

"How were you able to find us?" Meine wondered, quite impressed. She can't even find her brother in her own home sometimes. She can't imagine finding someone in such a huge crowded city.

Masayoshi smiled. "My kudan can find anyone as long as he's met them once. But that's all he can do! He's pretty weak."

"Ohh." Meine unconsciously said out loud again. Fai smiled fondly, finding it adorable how she always covered her mouth right after, as though it was very inappropriate of her to react loudly.

Suddenly, a loud ear-piercing shriek of an animal came from above and swooped down to grab Masayoshi and Mokona off the ground and it flew away up in the sky out of their reach. It appeared to be a kudan shaped like a large bird. As it was flying away, the bird dropped an envelope with a g-clef seal. Meine had to cover her ears as the bird's loud shriek hurt her ears. The blonde mage took notice immediately, he placed his hands over Meine's just like what he did yesterday. Meine looked up at him, her eyes conveying her gratitude. Fai let his hands fall back to his sides when he felt that she was okay again.

"Meine-san!" He called out as he watched her and Fai.

Fai gave him a smile and a thumbs up to let him know Meine was alright. Syaoran nodded in relief and picked up the envelope and found a letter inside. Meine peered over his shoulder and saw that the symbols on the paper were once again kanji, so she can't read what it said.

Syaoran seemed to be calling their names and saying something in another language that Meine couldn't understand, a bunch of slurred words that she had never heard before. He held out the letter and showed it to them. Kurogane and Fai started talking and again Meine couldn't understand it at all. She spoke to tell them that she couldn't understand a word they were saying but everyone just looked at her in confusion. They didn't understand her either.

Fai, Syaoran, Kurogane and Meine looked at each other and tried to wonder why they couldn't understand anything. Then it hit all of them at the same time…

"MOKONA!" they all said in unison.

Syaoran started pointing at a bookstore and he bought a map using the money inside the frog-shaped purse which was now entrusted to him. He flipped it open and scanned the pages for a while and once again started pointing down the road.

Syaoran started to run down the street and motioned them to follow. Kurogane seemed to understand a little and ran after him. Fai just followed suit, but noticed that Meine just stood there, wondering what was happening so he took her hand and pulled her along as he ran fast towards the other two.

It wasn't like Meine was a slow runner. Her kind is very fast by nature. She easily caught up with them but for some reason, even though she was running side by side Fai and the rest, he still wouldn't let go of her hand.

That reminded Meine of what he did in her room yesterday and that made Meine's face turn bright crimson. Fai smiled when their eyes met. She felt Fai's protectiveness over her, making her turn even redder if that was actually still possible. What was it about Fai that makes her feel so nervous?!

They stopped and Syaoran said something again, this time pointing at a building surrounded by trees. Meine spotted a little white balloon with a red gem floating on top of the building but then she noticed the ropes tying it around a tiger-shaped statue.

"Mokona!" she heard Syaoran say. "Masayoshi!" Meine felt worried for the two. They were so high up and the way they were bound seemed very uncomfortable. She started looking for a way to get to them.

"Why is Mokona not bothered by this..." Meine stated as she paused to reassess the situation.

"There they are." Fai said, bringing his arm up to wave at them.

"They look happy… well, at least the white one does." Kurogane muttered under his breath.

They all looked at each other with surprised faces.

"Finally, I can understand what you're saying." Kurogane grunted.

"That means it really was Mokona's ability." Meine affirmed. Feeling relieved that she can once again communicate with her companions. It scared her a little bit when she couldn't understand anyone around her. She felt that sense of helplessness again.

The four of them started running once again towards the Hanshin Palace.

"That means if we get separated again, we won't be able to understand each other." Kurogane said aloud as they ran.

"Looks like it." Fai said with a smile.

"That's so annoying!" Kurogane shouted.

"That would be troublesome." Meine added.

Syaoran agreed.

They arrived at the Hanshin Palace a few minutes later. They noticed the crowd of people in front of the Palace like there was an important event happening there.

"What the hell is going on here?" Kurogane asked, looking around. Meine didn't like the noise the crowd generated.

Since they were standing in front of the Palace itself, like they were on a stage or something, everyone in the crowd can see them. Syaoran took this as an opportunity and stood at the edge. "Excuse me!" he said aloud and held out the letter. "Can anyone tell me who wrote this letter?"

"I did!" said someone in an annoying sing song voice.

The crowd started to go wild as a girl with long sea foam green hair with buns on either side of her head showed up. She also had a pair of fairy wings included in her cute costume. Meine found it quite ridiculous.

"PRIMERA-CHAN!" the crowd screamed. Was she the Queen of this country or something? What was this huge crowd doing here?

"Who the hell is this woman?!" Kurogane asked as he looked up.

The crowd booed and reprimanded Kurogane, as if it was his fault that he didn't know who the girl was.

Syaoran didn't seem to care and he stared at Primera with determined eyes. "Please let Mokona and Masayoshi-kun go!"

Primera looked confused. "Isn't that, Syaoran?"

"I'm Syaoran!"

Primera looked mad as she took out a big paper fan and started hitting his minions on the head. "Fools! You idiots got the wrong person!" When she was finished, she jumped off the veranda where she was staying and landed on the roof of the palace.

"If I'm the person you're looking for, please let those two go!" Syaoran exclaimed.

"No!" The crowd went wild when she winked and pointed a finger at them, her other hand against her hip. "If you want them back, you have to fight me first!"

Syaoran looked around. "I can't find a way to climb up!"

Meine clicked her tongue in annoyance. This girl was utterly clueless! How dare she try to abduct Syaoran! In her anger, Meine remembered what her kudan told her. It could take the form of anything she wanted. Meine closed her eyes and blocked out everything as she called upon her kudan. When she opened her eyes, she saw the crowd's huge shadow in the form of a hooded cape. She asked her kudan to take the shape of a pair of wings. The shadow moved from the crowd and materialized into a huge pair of black wings on Meine's back. She took off without warning.

Everyone gasped at the sudden appearance of the wings. It was completely unexpected as they haven't seen what Meine's kudan was. Meine was hovering at the same level as Primera. She was staring daggers at her.

"Let my friends go." Meine demanded sharply with the regal strength of a Queen. Primera was taken aback in alarm. Meine looked ready to fight. Her amethyst eyes burned with the promise of retribution if her demands weren't met, her wings added to her already intimidating image.

"Oi we need to stop that kid from being reckless." Kurogane said, moving his head slightly to point at Meine.

Fai simply smiled and said "I might be able to get up!"

"How?" Kurogane grunted, crossing his arms.

Fai just smiled and then looked at Meine. "…By using my kudan."

Meine broke her gaze from Primera and watched as a humongous green bird appeared behind Fai and a strong gust of wind blew. She saw translucent wings fold over Fai's body and his feet floated off the ground.

"He's flying…" Meine whispered as she moved a little bit to the side to set some space between them. Fai hovered beside her, a smile plastered on his face. Although he was smiling, Meine had a feeling that he wasn't very happy with her at the moment. Fai motioned for her to get down but she shook her head in stubborn refusal. She didn't want to be helpless. She didn't like it. Not one bit.

Primera whined. "No fair! I can't even do that!" She held out her hand to the side and she smiled at her fans below. "Come out, kudan!"

Fai took this as a threat and moved in front of Meine as a protective gesture. An attack was imminent.

Her hand was shining at one moment and a microphone with speakers attached to it appeared. "Take this!"

"EVERYONE, CHECK THIS OUT!" she shouted to her kudan.

Meine quickly flew higher as soon as she saw something pop out of the kudan, she wasn't expecting big letters of the sentence she had just said appear out of her kudan and swiftly move towards Fai. As soon as it was close enough, the letters exploded in mid air hitting Fai.

"FAI!" Meine yelled, her voice laced with worry for the mage. She hovered right on top of the area where the explosion was, trying to see through the dust cloud the explosion made.

"Fai-san!" Syaoran screamed at the same time as her from below.

The smoke cleared and Fai was there up in the air and still in one piece. He was still as carefree as ever, floating up there in the air and twisting and turning…

"Hyuu~" Fai said playfully. He was looking right at Meine. "That's the first time you've said my name." He smiled. Meine's heart skipped a beat as she processed what he had just said. Of all the things to say... why did he go for that! ' _At least he's okay'_ her mind chimed in. Meine was relieved. She focused her attention to Primera once again, more pissed than ever.

"I'm surprised." Fai said, barely audible because of the roaring crowd and other sounds. "That's also a kudan? This country sure is amazing…"

The idol Primera started whining and flailed her arms around. "I won't lose!" she screamed into her mic. Letters of what she said appeared in one line and exploded once they get near Fai. Once he moves and tries to evade, the letters follow him and it explodes and yet for some reason, he could still find some way to make it explode without hitting him at all.

"Why can't I hit you?!" Primera whined as a she glared at Fai who landed at the edge of the roof of the Hanshin palace.

"If I let you hit me, it might hurt." He said with a kind smile. Primera was obviously pissed and she held her microphone tightly in her hand.

Meine took this chance to command her kudan to knock the mic off of Primera's hands. A small piece of her wing broke off and the kudan took on the shape of a hawk and it flew swiftly towards Primera's kudan. The idol screamed as Meine's kudan attacked her. She dropped her mic as she fell to the ground with a thud. The crowd beneath them gasped simultaneously in shock.

Syaoran on the other hand was there on the ground and his head was turning around as if he was looking for something.

"What the hell are you planning?" Kurogane asked coolly.

"We have to get there on top and find a way to get Mokona and Masayoshi-kun down! Also, Meine-san, and Fai-san…"

"You can leave them alone. They'll be fine." Kurogane remarked with his usual brash tone.

Meine set her attention on Fai who looked like as if he was just playing, without a single scratch on his clothes. He grinned at them when he noticed Syaoran and Kurogane staring.

"I tried to use my kudan last night to practice and I found something out. Even if your kudan has the ability to fly, your muscles remain the same as they were before."

"You mean he's using his own ability to dodge all those attacks as if he's as light as paper?" Syaoran asked with shock spread across his face.

"Ah." Kurogane confirmed. "Look at that damn grin. That man is a combat veteran!"

"Although he looks weak, he's very used to fighting." Syaoran thoughtfully remarked.

"Aren't you guys surprised?" the ninja exclaimed. This question was directed to Meine as well.

"No, not really. He gave me that impression yesterday..." She answered, watching as her kudan reattached itself to her wings.

"There's a clue in the casual way Fai-san carries himself, and the look in his eyes just gives you that impression." Syaoran added.

"He's not as dumb as he looks." Kurogane scoffed.

"How mean!" Fai whined from beside Meine. "Kuro-tan is being so mean to me." It was obviously meant to tease Kurogane.

"I want to help somehow!" Syaoran asserted.

Kurogane sighed. "I'm right about him being a naïve kid." he whispered to himself.

"You forced me into it! It's time for a change!" Primera yelled. Everyone's attention turned to her again. Meine actually forgot that she was still there. Primera's mic extended and a stand appeared. "When my kudan becomes a mic stand, there's no running away!"

"ALL MY FANS LOVE ME!" All the letters were bigger and faster this time that Fai and Meine were caught off guard. "Yeah!" The explosion was bigger than any of Primera's past letters. Fai wasn't able to evade the large explosion and he fell on top of a tree. Meine's wings folded in front of her defensively, effectively shielding her from the explosion.

"Fai are you alright?!" Meine called out in concern.

"Fai-san!" Syaoran screamed for his companion and ran towards the tree. Kurogane just stood at his original spot and didn't even move an inch.

"I'm alright!" His hand came out from the leaves and he there he stood. "I didn't expect it to change form. And those letters sure do come after you!"

Fai's expression suddenly became serious as if he was finally going to stop playing with the poor girl and her kudan. "Since this girl is fighting with her kudan and Mokona isn't reacting, it must mean that this girl isn't the one with the feather." Meine suddenly understood what Fai was trying to accomplish. She felt a little childish at the way she rashly acted.

Primera then started to laugh. "Well? Do you surrender?"

"If I did, what would happen next?" Fai asked.

Meine decided to move towards Mokona as Fai provided her with the distraction. She flew towards the white fluffly creature and used the dagger she always carried to cut the rope that bound Mokona. Meine took Mokona into her arms, looking back at Masayoshi and telling him that she'll come back for him before taking Mokona down and handing it over to Kurogane who got pissed off when the white bun jumped on his head, chanting "Thank you, Meine" over and over again. Meine chuckled before flying back up to rescue Masayoshi.

"Then it's your little friend "Syaoran's" turn to lose!" she heard Primera say with a small huff. A vein popped on Meine's head in annoyance. This girl was really starting to get on her nerves. She and her stupid loud kudan needs to shut up!

"We can't have that… Syaoran-kun has some important business to see , I want to end this battle myself." Fai stated.

"In that case… THEN YOU HAVE TO BEAT ME FIRST!" the letters rushed to Fai but he didn't even try to evade it. Instead, when the letters where only a few meters away, he jumped on top of it and swiftly moved on top of the letters.

Even Primera wasn't expecting that to happen when Fai easily reached her and pushed her down the roof.

"I don't want to cause injury to such a beautiful young lady. Won't you stop?" he asked in a kind voice but Meine could swear she heard a threat in his tone. Meine felt a certain satisfaction at Primera's defeat.

Primera started to tear up and didn't notice that she screamed into her mic. "This is so not fair!" It all came as a surprise to everyone when the letters hit the part of the roof where Masayoshi and Meine were and it exploded, causing the rope to burn and the last captive to fall. Meine was knocked away by the blast. She hit a part of the wall before falling down. Luckily, her kudan was able to change into a human figure who caught her before she hit the ground. The impact she had with the wall had actually hurt her a lot. She winced in pain as she tried to get off her kudan. Her hip was the first part that came into contact with the wall, it took most of the force and thus taking the most damage.

She saw Kurogane running towards her with Mokona on his shoulder. "Meine-chan! Are you okay?" Mokona cried as it jumped over to Meine. She caught it and held it in her arms without saying anything. She was afraid that tears would fall if she spoke. Meine buried her face on the white bun's fur. Mokona felt warm and comforting as usual. "Meine-chan is injured!" Mokona gasped, tears forming in the corner of its eyes.

Kurogane grunted as he folded his arms across his chest as if to say "I told you this would happen", his brows were somehow extra furrowed. Meine commanded her kudan to set her down but the moment she stood without support, a sharp pain shot up through her body and her legs buckled. Kurogane caught her in time before she fell on the ground. He carried her up like a princess without saying a word but it was evident that he was both annoyed and worried. "I'm sorry, Kurogane-san." She offered meekly. The warrior responded with a glare that made Meine feel small. Like a petulant child who went against her parent's warning and ended up getting hurt. The pain on her hips intensified and that made her realize that her healing ability was truly gone. The realization twisted at her heart like a knife. She hid her face on Kurogane's chest and quietly sobbed. The ninja didn't know what exactly was wrong so all he could do was hold her firmly.

"WATCH OUT!" Syaoran shouted. Masayoshi's kudan appeared and tried to pull his master from falling. A familiar manta ray-shaped kudan appeared to save the two and slowly set them on the roof.

"What do you think you're doing, Primera?"

"Shougo-kun!" Primera said.

Mokona's eyes went open and Meine also felt a huge wave of energy but she didn't know where it was. The only kudan she could see were Masayoshi's kudan and Shougo's kudan. She looked up from Kurogane's chest to search around, her eyes still wet with tears.

Meine tried to pinpoint the direction of the huge wave of power but she couldn't find it at all. Fai landed on the ground beside her, he looked troubled. "Are you alright, Meine-chan?" He asked as he gently wiped a tear from her face. "Where does it hurt?" His gentle concern felt like a dagger stabbing through her heart. She didn't like how scared she is right now. She's been hurt and for the first time in her life she stayed hurt. She knew she can't stand, let alone walk and that helplessness and vulnerability wavered her spirit.

Kurogane took one glance at the girl in his arms and just decided to answer for her instead, "She can't stand. I saw her collide with the wall quite hard."

Meine flinched in shame. She was better than this. She was about to say that she was okay but the moment she met Fai's eyes she was unable to continue. Instead she let herself be distracted by the feather's power which was pulsing near by. What was with that look anyway? Was that pity?

"Syaoran-kun." she called.

Syaoran turned around to look at Meine.

"The feather is near!" she managed to stammer out loud enough to be heard.

Mokona was bouncing up and down with its eyes open and it kept waving its arms. "The feather! The feather is close by!" it said, echoing Meine.

"Where?!" Syaoran said, his eyes opening wide. "Where is it!"

"The location is unknown but the feather is definitely in this area." Meine claimed as she looked around.

Syaoran looked at her with equally huge eyes like before. "You can feel its presence?"

Meine just nodded. "I think it's inside a kudan."

"So some kudan has taken it inside itself?" Fai asked, his usual cheery tone was back.

"But the presence gets stronger but it weakens all of a sudden." Meine explained without looking at Fai. She didn't miss the disappointment he had with her. She was still feeling horrible but she didn't want to pay attention to it right now. There are other more pressing matters at hand.

"What does that mean?" Kurogane asked as he gently adjusted his grip on Meine who was trying to raise up her upper body. She must've been really hurt if she wasn't asking him to put her down.

"Sorata-san said that the kudan protect their owners. So probably, the time that it pulls out its greatest strength is when it's protecting its owner."

Fai smiled. "And that means… The only way to find the feather is through battle!"

Kurogane looked down at the girl he was holding. She was listening to them but at the same time her head was somewhere else. She looked so small and vulnerable. Gone was her stoic grace, it had been replaced by something more genuine. Fear. Somehow he had a feeling that the girl has never experienced anything like this before and she didn't know what to do. A feeling of protectiveness surged through him. He had this same feeling towards Tomoyo-hime before.

The leader of the group wearing goggles yesterday stood at the opposite of where they were standing. "I'm sorry that my words caused unexpected trouble for you…Syaoran. But I meant what I said yesterday that I like you! You are strong, not with your fist but here." – He pointed at his chest. 'So I want to fight you, with our kudans."

"Shougo, you stupid kudan-battle maniac!" Primera screamed.

"I understand." A flame started to appear in front if Syaoran's foot before his flame kudan materialized beside him. "I accept this challenge!"

Shougo grinned and pulled down his goggles to cover his eyes. "You guys stay out of this." he told his team and they took the liberty to place bets on who will win the battle.

"Ready…" Shougo said, their kudans opening its mouths and gathering power… "GO!" Each kudan let out a powerful blast of their power and it exploded when they met because the power was so great. That explosion caused some of the rubble from the collapsing Hanshin Palace to drop down on Syaoran.

"WATCH OUT!" Masayoshi shouted as a huge piece of the building was heading for Syaoran's direction. Syaoran jumped high into the air and split the boulder in half with only one kick. He then landed on the ground below where Primera's fans (who have now ran away) used to be.

"Syaoran-kun is pretty cool." Fai said as he leaned forward to look at the boy closer. The three of them were now standing at the edge of the platform. Meine silently agreed. It seems like Syaoran could fight as well. Her mind wandered back to the sleeping girl in Arashi's home. Can she fight too? she wondered.

"So he's more than just a pliable fool." Kurogane grunted. "He seemed to know that you're not just a silly person."

Fai smiled. "It seems like he's not just a child with an interest for archeology… He's still very young, but I can tell that he's been through a lot."

Meine felt sad. Everyone in her group had their own reasons to go to the Witch of Dimensions, ' _Yuuko ',_ her mind supplied. Fai was running away, Kurogane wanted to go home, Syaoran was trying to save his princess, and in her opinion, he had paid the saddest price possible; only someone with true strength could've paid such a price. That strength must've come from hardship.

"Meine-san, Mokona!" Syaoran called. "Can you feel the feather's presence?"

Meine shook her head. "I can feel it but it's not that powerful that you can pinpoint its location." Mokona kept bouncing as she spoke and it was nodding its head.

Syaoran stretched his hand in front of his and a huge blast of fire came out of his fist and it caught Shougo off guard. He held out his own hand and his kudan let out a blast of water but it was too late…

Shougo and his kudan were blown away by the power of the blast. Before he even hit something, his kudan caught him and set him back on the ground. "Wow. That was the first time that I flew that far…"

"SHOUGO-KUN!" Primera screamed, her eyes full of tears.

"I'm fine, so stop screaming my name!" he shouted back at her. He smiled at Syaoran and acted cool, even though he was already dripping wet because of his kudan. "You sure are strong. Kudan are controlled by the heart, what is it that makes yours so strong?"

"There is something that I must see through." he replied.

Shougo smirked and he warned everyone to get out of the way before his kudan opened its mouth and let out the biggest wave of water that swallowed the ground where Syaoran stood.

"SYAORAN-KUN!" Masayoshi shouted. He was panicking while Syaoran's companions just stood there silently and watched.

"Syaoran is right there." Mokona said and pointed at the water. The water was starting to evaporate fast and then there was Syaoran surrounded by his kudan who shaped itself into a ball to protect its owner. He stood up and his kudan returned to its original form beside him.

More rubble from the Hanshin Palace started to collapse only this time it wasn't falling on the ground, it was about to hit the part of the roof where Primera, and Masayoshi were. Primera screamed and for some reason Masayoshi didn't back away. Instead, he used his own body to protect Primera.

Meine watched with huge eyes as she slowly felt the wave of the feather get stronger and stronger as Masayoshi's kudan grew and grew until it stood twice as tall as the Hanshin Palace.

"The feather…" Meine said as she stared at the huge kudan. Mokona also felt it as it opened its eyes.

"The feather is in that kudan!" Both Mokona and Meine yelled.

"The feather is in that kudan?" Kurogane asked in disbelief. " _That_  kudan?!"

"That's why Mokona or Meine-chan couldn't find it when the kudan was searching for people, because it was at its strongest when protecting its master." Fai thought aloud.

Masayoshi's kudan had gone berserk and started blasting at random directions while holding its owner on its hand.

Fai, and Kurogane used their kudans to bring them near Syaoran. Kurogane held Meine tighter to keep her from falling.

"What the hell is wrong with that kudan?" Kurogane growled. Meine felt the vibration of his voice as her cheeks were pressed on his chest.

"The feather's power is so strong that Masayoshi-kun can't control it anymore." Meine explained.

"What are you going to do now?" the ninja grunted. Meine wondered how Kurogane's arms weren't tired yet from holding her up all this time. He could've just put her down on the ground. Meine wouldn't have minded that, but instead the ninja carried her like she weighed nothing. He must have really strong arms, she thought.

"I'm going to get Sakura's feather back." Syaoran said and walked towards the direction of the berserk kudan.

"How do you intend to fight something that big?"

"One mistake can cost you your life, Syaoran." Meine warned, concern lacing her voice.

"I won't die!" Syaoran said, turning around to look at them. "I still have something to do, so I can't die yet."

Fai sighed and smiled. "You can count on Kuro-pi to handle things here. You go ahead and do what you must."

Meine felt Kurogane flinch at the 'Kuro-pi' remark. She tried to suppress a chuckle. Kurogane was unexpectedly gentle.

Syaoran smiled and nodded. "I'll see you later then." And with that, he jumped together with his kudan and flew towards the feather.

"Syaoran-kun has strength in a lot of different ways." Fai whispered. All Meine could do was nod. "I think I get the feeling why the flame kudan came to him."

The kudan's chest started sparkling and Syaoran could be seen standing on top of a lamp post with his flame kudan on his side. His kudan started to envelop him and from afar he looks like he was burning. All of a sudden, he jumped high and punched the chest of the kudan where it was sparkling.

The kudan's chest caught on fire. Even though Syaoran was surrounded by fire and was being burnt, he wasn't making a single sound. He pushed on forward to the center where the feather was. With the consent of Masayoshi, the fire that Syaoran was controlling got bigger and he pushed until he grabbed that source of sparkling.

As soon as the source of power was pulled out of it, Masayoshi's kudan returned to its former state. The flame left Syaoran and moved quickly to catch Masayoshi from hitting the ground. Even though he was covered in ash and slight burns, Syaoran smiled and kept the feather tightly against his chest.

Shougo's kudan flew above them and brought down rain to stop some of the burning rubble. "The least I could do…" he said. "…is keep this place from catching on fire."

The three of them walked towards Syaoran, who stood up slowly and had a big triumphant smile on his face. "Let's go home!" he said with a huge smile. Meine felt proud of him.

This time they ran all the way back to the apartment, Meine held on to Kurogane for dear life. Damn they were fast. Syaoran was practically jumping as he did a sharp turn to enter the building, pausing to announce to Sorata and Arashi who stood outside that he had found the feather.

He hurriedly ran to the floor where Sakura was sleeping and threw off his shoes. The other three were not far behind and watched the feather enter Sakura's chest. After a few minutes, she opened her eyes and revealed emerald green orbs behind those closed lids.

"Sakura!" Syaoran said when she opened her eyes, his hand tightly holding hers.

She looked at him with eyes that seemed to be in a daze. "Who are you?" she asked.

The three of them watched as Syaoran froze for a moment and set her hand back down on the bed. He looked like he was about to cry but he smiled warmly at the girl. Meine felt so bad for him.

"My name Syaoran… and you… are her highness, Princess Sakura." he said, a hint of sadness was present in his voice. He helped the girl sit up. "If you'd be so kind to listen, I will explain. You are a princess from another world."

Sakura didn't have any emotion in her voice or on her face. "Another…world?"

Syaoran nodded. "At the moment, you've lost your memory. You are travelling between worlds to find your memories."

"By myself?" she asked.

"No… You have travelling companions."

"Are you one of those…?"

"Yes." He said with a smile. This was very heartbreaking to watch.

"You're doing this for a total stranger?"

Meine could swear that she saw Syaoran about to cry. Her heart hurt for him. He forced a smile on his lips. "I am."

Fai decided that it was time to finally give Syaoran a break and he entered the room. "Princess Sakura, I am pleased to make your acquaintance. I am Fai D. Fluorite at your service." His hand lightly touched Syaoran's shoulder and finally let him leave the gesture convinced Meine that Fai was actually just as kind as the rest of her companions. A smile crossed her lips.

Meine motioned for Kurogane to set her down beside the princess' bed. He complied, gently placing her down as to not hurt her. "I am Meine Liebe von Kreautz, princess of the country of Rosette. It is nice to meet you." She smiled at warmly at the girl who looked at her with her eyes in a daze. ' _Syaoran loves this girl with all his heart, I'm sure she's a wonderful person.'_

Sakura looked at Kurogane and he just grunted. "I'm Kurogane."

Fai took the little white creature on his shoulder and handed it to Sakura. "And this cute, fluffy one is…"

"Mokona Modoki!" Mokona said, raising a hand. "You can call me Mokona!"

Syaoran took this opportunity to leave the room. Meine's eyes followed him as he exited. He looked so pained. It didn't take long before they noticed that he went out to the street, he stood there letting the rain wash away his tears.

The three of them had decided to leave Sakura in Mokona's watch and they left the room to go back to their own, Kurogane carried her with them and set her down on the window ledge. Fai gently wrapped his arms around Meine's waist to keep her from falling. She didn't mind it at all.

"At that moment, I was sure he would cry." Fai said in a soft voice. "It seems that Sakura-chan is the most important person in the world to Syaoran-kun. So when she said "Who are you?" I felt certain he would cry."

"I wonder if he's crying now…" Meine said, almost a whisper as they watched Syaoran with his shoulders hunched and his kudan out and circling him.

Kurogane folded his arms against his chest. "If he wants to keep on crying, he'll just have to get stronger. Strong enough so he won't be crying in the end."

"Yes, but I think there's a certain strength that's needed to be able to cry when you should." Meine added, speaking softly.

She stared outside the window and noticed that their kudans were now there with Syaoran, protecting him from the rain.

 

* * *

 

It was the day of their departure for another world where they could find another fragment of Sakura's memory. The five of them stood in front of the apartment building, wearing the clothes that they originally wore when they were in Yuuko's shop. Sorata and his wife Arashi stood in front of them.

Meine was feeling a lot better after Arashi gave her some medicine that numbs the pain. She was also grateful for the ice pack and the patches the woman gave her as she treated her bruised hips. It felt weird being treated like that for injuries. It took a lot of things just to make the pain go away. A flash of fear sparked in her eyes. She was lucky that it was just a bruise and not broken bones, or something much worse... She needs to reign in her temper if she truly wanted to make it out of this alive. Meine took a deep breath just as Sorata was about to speak.

"So you're leaving?" he asked in a sad tone. "You never even got a chance to taste the collaboration cooking of my honey and I!"

Sakura stood there in the middle and her eyes were half closed. Meine got concerned and decided to approach her, taking her hand. "Are you alright?" Meine asked.

Sakura looked at her and nodded, rubbing her eye with her free hand. "I'm just a little sleepy." Meine smiled in relief.

Meine noticed that Syaoran was looking at Sakura when Kurogane approached him. "Don't look down now! If you have something you must do, you must keep looking forward."

Syaoran nodded. Kurogane's actually a great person.

Mokona opened its large wings and a magic circle appearing underneath it.

"Thank you very much." Syaoran said as the wind started to make a wall around them. Meine bowed deeply in gratitude.

Arashi smiled. "I hope that you will find Sakura's feathers in the next world."

A powerful vacuum inside Mokona's mouth sucked them inside the little creature and burped before folding its wings, moving on to another dimension.

As Meine and the rest of them were travelling between dimensions, she looked back and saw her kudan standing at the end of the opening. The tall hooded cape bowed. Meine bowed her head back slightly in response. "Goodbye." She told him.

She shook away the sadness and looked forward to see the next world they were going to go to next.

 

**_-Chapter End-_ **

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If Kudans were real, what would yours be and why? Let me know in the comment section!


	3. III: Country of Clover

"I wonder what kind of world we arrived at this time?" Fai wondered out loud as he looked around his surroundings. They seemed to be in an alleyway of some sort. Right away he noticed that someone was missing.

"There's trouble!" Mokona started to yell over and over, jumping on Kurogane's head.

"What is it Mokona?" Syaoran asked, looking very worried.

"Something felt very wrong while we were arriving! Mokona thinks someone was trying to interfere!" It said in a panic.

Sakura gasped, feeling uneasy as she grabbed onto Syaoran's arm.

"Meine is not here." Fai said ominously, his eyebrows deeply furrowed.

Kurogane took note of how drastically his aura had changed, his mind going back to the time when Kiishimu showed them an illusion of Meine slowly being strangled by vines. The mage's demeanor changed in an instant and the atmosphere became dark and tense. Kurogane was shocked to see the ruthless expression on the blonde's face which was directed at the witch. Fai was almost unrecognizable then. There was definitely something there between him and the raven haired princess.

Syaoran and Sakura looked at each other after seeing the look on Fai's face. They were both thinking of how protective he was when it comes to Meine.

"Don't worry, Fai!" Mokona exclaimed as it jumped in Fai's arms. "Meine is in this world with us! She just ended up in a different place!" Mokona claimed, hoping to put Fai's worry at ease for the time being.

The tense mood suddenly disappeared when the blonde mage visibly relaxed, putting back on his carefree smile. "Thank goodness."

* * *

Meine fell in the middle of a throne room. The first thing she saw was a tall man looming above her. Behind him was a throne with an intimidating man sitting in it.  _The_   _King_   _perhaps_ , she thought. She looked around for her companions and saw that they weren't around. She couldn't even feel their presence. Meine panicked, thinking that she got separated and ended up in another world.

"Gingetsu! Bring her forward!" The King ordered.

The man looming over her then grabbed her arm and started to pull her towards the King. The man dragging her was called Gingetsu. He had silver hair and purple eyes. Meine noticed that there was something wrong with his gaze, his eyes were glazed over and they looked empty almost like he was soulless. Meine felt scared. She sensed that she was in a very bad place. The King asked her what she was doing there and where she was from.

Meine was both surprised and relieved that she understood what he was saying. That meant Mokona and the others were in the same world as her. She couldn't help but let out a small sigh of relief.

"I don't know… I just arrived from another world." she told him, and the King seemed very pleased to hear that. She shuddered at his smiling face. She was caught off guard when she felt a sudden strong surge of familiar power. It was undoubtedly from Sakura's feather. She started to look around for its source, all she knew for sure is that the feather was somewhere nearby.

"Tell me your name." The King demanded.

She hesitated before answering. "My name is Meine" she managed to say out loud without a tremble. "Are you the King?"

"Why yes I am, dear traveler." His eyes gleamed with intent. "We have been expecting you."

This took Meine by surprise. Those words did not bode well for her. She wasn't about to stay around just to be used for something by this strange King. She took a silent deep breath before responding, "I wish you no harm, your majesty. I am merely passing through. I can be on my way now if I could be shown the way out." She said, wisely keeping her head down.

"Nonsense!" The King exclaimed with a smile on his face. "Gingetsu, take this woman to where she would be staying for tonight. She is our most welcomed guest." His grin sent shivers down her spine. There was definitely something off about this man.

Meine raised her head and looked the King straight in the eye. "With all due respect, your majesty, I—"

"Now." The King interrupted. The intensity of his glare showed that he was not to be disobeyed.

Without missing a beat, Gingetsu had his hands on her. Meine allowed herself to be escorted away as the King's last word masked a big threat and she didn't want to get into trouble in a room full of armed guards. She was escorted by Gingetsu to what appeared to be a guest bedroom. It was spacious and contained a big comfortable looking bed, a desk, and a wardrobe. A beautiful chandelier hung from the ceiling in the center of the room.

"The King says you are a welcomed guest here, but you are not permitted to leave your room." Gingetsu stated. Meine thought it was dumb to say that. They should've just called her a prisoner instead of a guest if they were just going to lock her up.

"Someone will bring you a change of clothes and food." He said coldly before closing the door and taking his leave.

Meine wanted to escape quickly but she knew that she couldn't leave right away because she felt the presence of Sakura's feather somewhere nearby. She didn't know which one to find first: Her friends or the feather. She decided that if there's a feather here, Syaoran and the others would soon make their way here so she was going to find the feather to make things easier for everyone when they finally reach this place. She pressed her head against the door to check if there's someone guarding outside the door and she sensed 2 people outside so she decided against getting out that way.

Meine opened the window and saw that she was in a room very high up from the ground. This didn't faze her however. She jumped down and landed in a beautiful courtyard full of flowers. She closed her eyes and started to walk towards the direction of the feather. She was stopped by a man with greyish blue eyes and dark hair. She was about to run away from him when he spoke and asked what her name was. His eyes weren't glazed like Gingetsu's. They looked quite sad in fact, so Meine decided not to run away.

"My name is Meine." She replied after a moment of hesitance.

"Hello Meine-san, my name is Ran." He responded "You're the girl that suddenly appeared in the throne room aren't you?" he asked, although it seemed like he already knew the answer.

Meine nodded her head. "Where exactly is this?" She inquired.

Ran tilted his head slightly, confused as to where to begin. Meine caught this and swiftly clarified, "I mean what country am I in?"

"You're in the land of Clover, and this kingdom is called Pyrethrum." He answered, pausing for a brief moment before continuing "I'm sure you have a lot more questions but I'm afraid you must return to your quarters immediately. It will not be good for you if you get caught out here." He added with a look of sadness and worry on his face.

Meine was caught off guard by his kindness and gentleness so she decided to heed his warning. He told her that he would come visit her in the morning and that she should get some rest for now. Ran reassured that The King would not harm her in her sleep. He watched her jump back up to her window ledge which she conveniently left open.

She laid on the bed, wondering how her other companions were doing. She hoped that they were all safe wherever they may be. A blush spread across her cheeks when Fai's face flashed in her mind as she closed her eyes. Fai was a constant presence around her ever since she started on this journey, and not having him around felt quite empty as he was the one she had conversations with the most.

They had warmed up to each other after their adventure in Hanshin Republic rather quickly, and that was partly thanks to the sense of familiarity she gets whenever she was with Fai. It truly felt like she already knew him even though they have never crossed paths before they started their adventure.

* * *

Meanwhile, Fai and the rest were picked up by the palace guards who saw them drop from the sky and was brought forward to Queen Suu of the neighboring kingdom. She was a kind young woman with short silver hair, and green eyes. Right by her side was a tall man with short black hair and dark eyes, named Kazuhiko. He's her personal body guard and the Queen never goes anywhere without him.

"So what brought you travelers here to our kingdom?" Queen Suu inquired, her eyes glistening with excitement.

"We're here to look for something Sakura lost. It's something very important to her!" Mokona explained.

"Oh my!" Queen Suu exclaimed, putting her hands over her mouth. "It can talk!" she said, looking at Kazuhiko. He looked more intrigued than shocked.

"What is that thing?" He asked.

"Mokona is not a thing! Mokona is Mokona!" The little creature defended.

"Mokona is our mascot." Fai smiled.

"Mascot? Mokona?" Queen Suu wondered, tilting her head to the side.

"Did the guards happen to see a girl with dark hair and amethyst eyes around the area where you found us, Queen Suu?" Sakura asked politely. "She's about the same height as me and her name is Meine. She's our companion."

Suu gave her a kind smile. "You can just call me Suu." She continued, "To answer your question, no. You were the only foreigners the guards found… Now what should I call you?"

Sakura looked disappointed. "My name is Sakura." she bowed.

"Nice to meet you, Sakura." Suu looked over to the men behind Sakura, prompting them to introduce themselves.

"My name is Syaoran, your highness." He answered respectfully, bowing just like Sakura did.

"My name is very long so you can just refer to me as Fai." The mage responded in his usual cheery tone. "This mean looking man over here is called Kuro-pyon!" He teased.

"IT'S KUROGANE!" the ninja snapped.

The Queen let out a hearty laugh, amused by their little banter. "So where are you all from?" she asked. "I was told about how the guards saw your group fall out of a portal in the sky." She supplied, her eyes glistening with excitement.

"We came from another world, your highness." Syaoran answered honestly.

The Queen was very delighted to hear that and ordered a banquet for them.

…

During the banquet, she told them about a prophecy where a girl from another world arrives when the country needed most help. The girl will either save that country or completely ruin it. It all depended on the first person she sees after she arrives. She thinks that the girl in the prophecy was Sakura. She welcomed them with open arms.

"There's another girl with us though as Sakura mentioned earlier…" Fai said. His friends noticed the subtle gloom in his voice.

"Ah yes. That girl Sakura mentioned earlier, Meine was it?" she said, "I have ordered the guards to search for your missing companion so be at ease, they will surely find her in no time."

This wasn't enough to appease them however, especially Fai who was growing more and more worried with each minute that passed by. There were moments when looked anxious and unlike his usual smiley self. Kurogane hit him with his palm on the back and told him to calm down. Worrying wouldn't help Meine.

"That hurt Kuro-puu~" he said in a sing song voice. "I'm sure Meine is fine. She's a strong girl." He reassured.

Mokona sensed that Fai was lying to himself to calm Sakura and Syaoran down. Mokona knew that he was still very worried about Meine. Mokona could tell that all this celebration was irritating Fai and that all he wanted to do was go out there and look for the other princess.

* * *

Meine dreamt about the time they arrived in Jade Country.

" _CAN'T YOU TRY SPITTING US OUT WITH DIGNITY?!" Kurogane shouted at Mokona as they arrived in a new world. He was dropped face first on the ground. The white creature just giggled and bounced on top of Kurogane's head. Meine raised her head from the ground and saw Sakura sitting on top of Syaoran, looking around with a dazed look on her face. She noticed that her body was oddly warm for being on the snow filled ground, she looked down and saw Fai grinning underneath her. Meine immediately sat up, her face warm and red._

" _I-I'm sorry Fai!" she stammered as she hurriedly stood up. She bent down and offered a helping hand to the mage who gladly accepted it._

" _It's alright, Meine-chan!" he smiled, patting her head. Such a good kid, Fai thought as he watched her blush even more._

" _So we've arrived in another world huh?" Kurogane stated with a huff as he looked around the area. They've arrived in the middle of the woods. Leaves were absent from all the trees which were covered in snow just like the pathways._

_Meine started shivering as she was too underdressed for the weather. She hugged herself in order to get warm, cursing her cloak for not providing enough protection from the cold. Fai noticed this and invited her to join him in his warm fluffy coat and she was happy to accept. He opened his coat for her and waited until she was close enough to his chest, enclosing her in a warm soft embrace inside his coat. Fai smiled when she stopped shivering._

" _So where do we head now?" Fai asked, "Our princesses doesn't seem to be faring well with the weather." He looked at Sakura who was shivering as well. Syaoran immediately took his cloak off and wrapped it around Sakura, leaving himself exposed to the cold winter air. He didn't seem to mind the cold. Meine's heart squeezed in adoration for him. Syaoran is such a great guy. He was willing to sacrifice anything in a heartbeat for his love._

" _Is there a feather here, Mokona?" Syaoran asked. Mokona closed its eyes and focused. It opened its eyes shortly after and said "There is!"_

_Syaoran nodded and Sakura looked relieved._

_The group decided to head south until they eventually reached a village. Fortunately, they weren't too far away from it to begin with. Meine immediately caught a whiff of cooked meat coming from somewhere inside the village. She got excited at the thought of food and started walking towards the source of the scent, nearly tripping a couple of times from wearing Fai's coat which was way too long and big for her. The mage enjoyed watching her try to get around in his coat, quietly laughing to himself every time she almost slipped but swiftly recovered in time. She was just way too cute and lively._

_It was Meine's growling stomach and sensitive nose that led them to the tavern where they decided to take shelter and eat._

oOo

" _I still can't believe we won so much money that we can afford to eat, dress, and rent horses." Meine said as she stepped out of the dressing room._

_Everyone stared at her as she looked at herself in the mirror. The violet gown that she wore further enhanced the colour of her eyes as it contrasted with her snow white skin and dark hair which she wore down._

" _Meine-chan looks very beautiful!" Sakura commented, smiling at the sight of her friend._

_Meine smiled back at her. "Not as beautiful as you Sakura-chan." She felt a surge of happiness in her chest when Sakura blushed at her compliment._

" _It really does suit you, princess." Fai said. "It's almost like this colour was made just for you." He reached out to touch the fabric of her dress._

_A blush crept across Meine's face. She didn't know what to say to that and the loud pounding of her heart was not helping._

" _So." Kurogane's voice interrupted her thoughts. "The man said the other town is just nearby. It wouldn't take long for us to get there on horseback but I suggest we get a move on before the sun sets."_

" _I agree." Syaoran said._

oOo

_It was a cold winter day and it got even colder as the clouds covered the sun._

" _Do you think we're close?" Mokona asked as it shivered inside Kurogane's cloak._

" _We should be. The tavern owner said it's only a little over an hour away. We've been riding for quite a while now so I'm sure we're almost there." Syaoran said._

" _Just a little bit more Mokona-chan, hang in there!" Sakura cheered, looking just as cold the rest of them were._

_Meine was thankful that they decided to rent only 3 horses as it gave her the chance to ride with Fai. Having his body right behind her provided her a lot of much needed warmth._

" _Are you alright there, Meine?" Fai whispered._

_The raven haired princess nodded in response. "Are you?" she asked in a hush tone. She didn't know why they were whispering._

" _Yes I am." He replied, still whispering. "Can you sense it, princess?"_

_Her eyebrows furrowed. "That we're being watched?" She was impressed by how sharp the mage was. She had the sense of being watched half way through their ride, though she wasn't sure if it was just her mind playing tricks with her to distract her from the cold. Someone else sensing it as well confirmed it._

" _Don't leave my side okay?"_

" _Okay…"_

"Fai…" Meine muttered in her sleep, as a single tear fell on her cheek.

* * *

Morning came soon after.

Meine changed into the clothes that were provided for her last night. It was a simple and sleek black dress which clung to her body. She let her hair loose this time as the lack of clothing made her feel exposed. They gave her a lace-up doll shoes to wear for her feet.

A knock came to her door and even before she opened it, she knew that they were there to deliver her breakfast. Meine gasped at the sight of her visitor. It was Ran and he came just like he promised. He placed the tray of food on the desk across the bed, and sat down next to Meine. After exchanging small pleasantries, he told her about the other country's prophecy and how the King thinks that she's the girl. He planned to use her to bring the other kingdom to its knees so he can conquer it. Meine wondered if her friends were in the neighboring country.

"I'm actually travelling with a group but I don't know where they are right now…" she explained to him, not bothering to hide the sadness she felt. "We travel to different worlds in search of Sakura's feathers."

Ran gasped after hearing about the feather. "Does the feather you search for have weird red markings on it?" He asked.

Meine was astounded to hear that from her new friend. "You know about the feather? Where is it?!" She exclaimed, feeling excited and hopeful. Her excitement subsided when she saw the disappointment in Ran's eyes.

"It's with the King," he answered dejectedly, "Gingetsu was the one who found the feather first. He discovered that it had immense power and he believed it to be a 3-leaf artifact."

' _3-leaf?'_ Meine wondered to herself, deciding to ask about it after Ran had finished telling her his story.

"Gingetsu tried to use it to beat the King so he could set me free, but the King used me as a shield. Gingetsu was forced to surrender and that was how the King obtained the feather." He continued, looking as though he would cry at any moment.

"The King used the feather to take away Gingetsu's free will entirely so that he wouldn't betray him again like he did. He let me have my free will because he knew that I wouldn't go anywhere without Gingetsu, and that I wouldn't try anything because I know that he would punish Gingetsu to punish me. He keeps me around because he is a pervert who likes to collect things... including people" He finished with a disgusted look on his face.

Meine felt sad for them. Her opinion of the King sunk down to the very bottom. She was right about him being dangerous.

"He was your lover…" She murmured.

A tear fell down as Ran softly nodded his head.

Meine grabbed his hand to comfort him. "I will get the feather from the King. Once I do, I will set Gingetsu free from his control." She promised him. "He won't get away with what he did to the two of you!"

Ran looked at him with gratitude. "Thank you, Meine." He smiled.

Shortly after breakfast, Gingetsu came to pick Meine up as she was being summoned by the King. Gingetsu just walked past Ran like he wasn't even there. Meine felt so sad for her new friend. Now she was even more determined to help him.

The King wanted to ask Meine more details about herself, he asked if she had any special powers or skills to fight.

Meine lied and said no. She told him that she was just a normal girl who relied on being protected. The King looked disappointed and angry that Meine was basically useless. He ordered the guards to take Meine back to her room as he and Gingetsu deviced a plan on how to use her.

She wondered if the King knew about the things Sakura's feather was capable of. It seemed like he thinks all it could do were minor attacks and control other people's minds. Meine was thankful for that. It would be very dangerous if the King discovered just how powerful Sakura's feather actually is. She remembered their trip to Koryo and was reminded of how dangerous it is for a mad man to have the power to control the minds of many.

She thought of her friends and wondered what they were doing. They must be worried about her. She wondered if they were on their way here to take Sakura's feather.

Meine looked out of the window in a daze. She recalled the conversation she had with Fai back in Koryo.

oOo

_She was sitting up on the roof of the house while everyone slept. She basked in the Moon's soft light in hopes that the moonlight will help get rid of the uncertainty she was feeling. She went on this journey with confidence in herself that she could accomplish her goal and be able to return safely to Rosette. She had the skills and the power to fight and defend herself in most situations but ever since Yuuko took away her healing ability, she's felt too scared to be in a fight. She never had to worry about getting hurt and sustaining any injuries before because she had the power to regenerate quickly. Now that that ability is gone, all she could think about was not getting injured in battle._

_It made her feel weak and helpless. She wanted to help Syaoran and the others out. She also wanted to be able to fight for herself but she was too scared to do so. She didn't want to get hurt. She didn't want to embarrass herself to her people who were waiting for her safe and successful return. Meine never realized how cowardly she truly was until she had to give up her healing ability. She was starting to cry when the mage showed up._

" _Good evening, princess." He greeted with a smile that was somehow different from his usual one as he sat beside her. "Why aren't you sleeping?" he asked._

_Meine stared at him in awe. Fai was glowing under the moonlight. His hair looked almost translucent under the moon's silver light, his eyes sparkled like a pair of pale sapphires. He was breathtaking._

" _I couldn't sleep…" she whispered, her eyes not leaving Fai's face._

_She gasped in surprise when the blonde's face moved closer to hers. She felt his finger softly brush a tear away from her eye. She expected her face to feel cold after the warmth of Fai's hand left her, so she was surprised when she felt even more warmth. Fai had cupped her cheek with one hand and softly caressed it. Meine closed her eyes and found herself leaning towards his touch._

" _Meine always looks sad when she thinks no one's looking at her." He said with the same gentle smile. "I wonder what haunts the beautiful princess."_

_Meine sighed sadly. She was too emotionally weak and vulnerable at the moment to lie to him. "The Witch took an ability that allows me to… fight. Without it, I'm useless. I feel powerless. I don't like being a burden to everyone." she confessed, her voice shaky._

" _I see." He replied._

_She wasn't aware of it but Fai was watching her with a sad gaze. He fully understood how Meine was feeling. The Dimensional Witch also basically took away his powers. He still had them yes, but he cannot use magic without his tattoo. He and Meine were going through the same exact emotions. The difference was that he could hide his pain very well, and the princess could not. He closed their distance and enveloped her in what he had hoped was a comforting hug. Meine's face nestled comfortably on the crook of his neck as he stroked her hair gently. "It's alright. Everything's going to be alright." he continued, a smile back on his face._

_He finally found out what was bothering Meine. He felt very special because Meine chose to open up to him instead of anyone else. Fai heard a little sniffle before he felt Meine's warm tears on his skin. She was afraid. He completely understood how it felt like to be weak and powerless. How pathetic and ashamed she must be feeling. He hugged her tighter, a wave of protectiveness surging through him. "Don't be scared. I'm here now… I promise I'll always protect you."_

_Meine's body relaxed as her heart felt lighter. The mage held her until she fell asleep in his arms._

oOo

Meine blushed as she remembered Fai's tender touch against her skin. A feeling of sadness soon welled up inside her, overtaking the happiness the memory gave her. She collapsed on the floor as she broke down in tears. She missed her friends. She longed for the comfort and the sense of safety they provided her. She felt very alone, isolated, and  _scared._ She saw the regal image she held herself in shatter into pieces as she was overwhelmed by the feeling of cowardice, and helplessness. She thought she was brave, strong, and powerful but it turns out, those characteristics were only there when she was surrounded by the safety the castle walls provided, and when she had the assurance of her healing ability. Now that she didn't have any of those, she felt defenseless. She had no idea how sheltered she was. Meine never thought that she would be one day drowning in so much self-doubt and uncertainty.

* * *

It felt like hours before Ran found her on the floor like that.

"Meine!" Ran exclaimed, quickly running over to his friend to check on her. "What's wrong?" He asked worriedly.

The princess sniffled as she tried to hold back her tears so she could respond. She failed as more tears came. She never realized how much pent up emotions she had until now when she's finally had some alone time for herself for the first time ever since she started her journey.

Ran didn't know what else to do but their hold her as she cried.

Once she finally calmed down, Ran asked what happened. Meine explained to him about how she had to give up her powers in order to travel to different worlds. She didn't go much into the details of it but Ran sensed that she didn't want to say more so he didn't press on about it.

Instead, they decided to come up with a plan to seize Sakura's feather. Ran also explained to her what a 4-leaf clover was when she remembered to bring it up.

_In the land of Clover, everyone is ranked from non-clovers to 4-leaf clovers. Clovers are a special race of people who are born with the ability to use magic. Their power level is categorized by the Clover system; 1-leaf clovers are those who can use magic but on a very low scale, they are unable to produce any spells that are useful in battle thus putting them in the lowest level. 1-leaf clovers are randomly born from parents who are non-clovers. 2-leaf clovers rank only slightly above 1-leaf clovers because they can cast mildly harmful spells that is okay for self-defense but not really useful in more serious battles. 3-leaf clovers are very powerful and have a wider range of magic, they could do what 1 and 2 leaf clovers can do and then some. They are able to cast powerful magic thus making them very useful in battle._

_3-leaf clovers are highly sought after people, the high-ranking nobles in the kingdom are mostly composed of 3-leaf clovers as the king favours them more and generously rewards them to keep their loyalty to him. 3-leaf clovers are much rarer than 1 and 2 leaf clovers._

_Ran also told Meine that Gingetsu, and the King were 3-leaf clovers. And then finally, the 4-leaf clovers._

_4-leaf clovers are the most powerful and rarest of all clovers. They have an overwhelming power and they are widely feared by people. 4-leaf clovers are usually killed for fear that they might use their powers to destroy the world, or captured so that they could be used by someone's own personal gain._

_The only known existing 4-leaf clover was Queen Suu of the neighboring kingdom. The Queen was an orphan found and raised by the previous late King and Queen, she wasn't of royal blood but since she was a precious and rare 4-leaf clover, she was quickly accepted and praised by the people of the kingdom._

_4-leaf clovers mostly only come from parents who are both 4-leaf clovers, which makes it almost impossible to find one as they were already incredibly rare to begin with. Two 4-leaf clovers finding each other and being able to make a child is extremely rare and highly unlikely, but there were rare cases where a 4-leaf clover child was born from a couple where only one of parent is a 4-leaf clover._

Ran and Meine's plan involved the two of them waiting till nightfall. Ran told her that the King sleeps at midnight and that he keeps the feather in a room right across his bedroom which was always guarded by two guards. There was only one window in the feather room so climbing up through it wasn't an option because breaking the window open would be too loud. Plus the King's floor was at the very top of the castle and Meine couldn't jump high enough to reach it. So they decided that Ran would distract the guards as Meine rush into the room to take the feather and then run like hell using the secret passages Ran discovered throughout his stay in the castle. Ran cannot leave with Meine because he's afraid that the King would hurt Gingetsu if he does. Meine agrees and promises to return once she's reunited with her friends so that they could set Gingetsu and Ran free.

Unfortunately things did not go according to plan. Before Meine was able to grab Sakura's feather, Gingetsu appeared out of nowhere from within the room and restrained her by holding her arm behind her back. The King then soon entered the room with a twisted smile on his face. They expected Meine to try something when Gingetsu overheard them talking about the feather. Meine tried to reason with Gingetsu but her words fell to deaf ears. The last thing she saw before blacking out was the Kings twisted grin.

* * *

Meanwhile Fai, Kurogane, Sakura, Mokona and Syaoran spoke amongst themselves as they tried to figure out a way to find Meine. Everyone in their group had noticed how Fai wasn't acting like himself. He was bumping into things, dropping things, and spilling drinks on himself all day. He was still all smiles and silliness but it felt very insincere especially when he spaced out a lot. They all knew it was because of how worried he was for Meine. He always watched over her, and he seemed clingier to her than the rest of them, so they completely understood why Fai was acting so clumsily.

They still haven't heard of any news about a girl like Meine showing up in the kingdom, so they were all almost sure that Meine must've ended up in the Pyrethrum kingdom. Which was the reason why Fai was increasingly getting more and more agitated as the seconds went by. They were told that the other kingdom's king was a tyrant and was feared by his own people. He liked to collect beautiful things as well, including people. It was a well-known sick hobby of his. Fai was disgusted at the thought of the King. He was definitely going to punish him if he hurts Meine in any way. The neighboring kingdom's King wanted to see the downfall of Queen Suu's kingdom as well because he wanted to conquer their land to expand his country.

Fai was startled when Sakura placed her hand over his balled fist. Her bright emerald eyes shimmering with hope.

"Don't worry, Fai. Meine is very strong." She began, her voice gentle. "Somehow I know that everything will be alright." The mage was comforted by her words but his worry still remains. He smiled at her.

"Thank you, Sakura-chan. You're right, Meine is a strong girl."

The talk of her feather then came up but both Syaoran and Sakura said that their current priority is finding Meine and rescuing her if necessary.

After Sakura went to bed, Fai insisted on going to the other kingdom tonight to search for Meine. He was stopped by Kurogane who was getting quite frustrated with him.

"Look, everyone is just as worried about her as you are but going without a plan is downright stupid and it could get us all killed!" he exclaimed in his usual brash tone. "You are acting very careless and overly worried about that princess. You need to trust in her more." Sure they were all worried about her but Fai was obsessively worried. Kurogane knew how much Fai has come to care for the raven haired princess. He heard their conversation up on the roof that night in Koryo, and he saw the way he panicked when he thought that Meine disappeared with Sakura in Jade Country.

"I understand how you are feeling right now, Fai-san." Syaoran said. "I want to find Meine-san as soon as possible as well." He didn't like the thought of her being all alone in a very unfamiliar place. He remembered how he felt when Sakura went missing back in Jade Country and he never wanted to feel that way again.

They decided that going out tonight wasn't the best course of action for them at the moment so they decided to wait until morning. Fai didn't get a wink of sleep, he couldn't stop thinking about the fact that this was their second night without seeing Meine. All he wanted was to have Meine safely in his arms as soon as possible.

He stood outside on the balcony of his room where he could see the small twinkling of lights from the Pyrethrum kingdom. After a while, Kurogane showed up on his balcony as he expected.

"Why exactly are you so distracted and agitated over this whole thing more so than everyone else?" Kurogane demanded to know.

"She is the first thing that I've cared about in so long. It's something quite new to me." Fai said, looking up at the starry skies. "I'm sure you can understand."

"You've become too attached to her." He huffed in response.

Fai looked pensive. "I wonder…" he paused, deep in thought. "Maybe I have become too attached to our lively little princess." He smiled.

"You've been watching her so closely ever since we've all met. What's the deal with that?" Kurogane questioned. It was something that he had observed for quite some time now. "You act like you've known her forever."

Fai was startled by the last statement. "As expected of Kuro-sama! Such a keen eye!" he joked. Kurogane just gave him a look of annoyance. "I guess I have been huh?" he said changing his tone. "She feels very familiar even though I'm sure we've never met before. Isn't that weird?"

Kurogane raised his eyebrow. "Maybe you have but you just don't remember."

The mage chuckled. "It's hard to forget someone like her."

"Oi don't tell me you're in love with her."

Fai's reply came in an instant. "You joke too much, Kuro-rin." His expression changed into something more serious. "I'm not in love with anyone. You shouldn't mistake compassion for love." He said in a tone he has never used around them before, his eyes sharp and cold.

"You sure act like it though. If your enemy saw the way you look at her, they would've cut her down already to get back at you." Kurogane responded.

The ninja wasn't aware of it but that hit a nerve. Fai's thoughts drifted back to his own world, to the person he was running away from. The disturbing image of Ashura standing over Meine's cold body that flashed in his mind left Fai shaken to his core.

Kurogane grunted, he was a little bit surprised that he managed to render the mage speechless. His thoughts drifted to Princess Tomoyo. He felt exactly the same way towards her. It was Princess Tomoyo that made him want to keep on living after his parents were murdered. "We'll get her back." He stated, crossing his arms.

Fai glanced at him as turned to go back inside his room.

* * *

Morning came with a very much welcomed information. Someone had seen a girl just like the missing princess in the neighboring country. She was seen in the castle by a spy who have heard that Queen Suu was looking for a girl who looked like Meine. Fai's happy façade once again broke as he heard the news. Everyone was slightly shocked to see such an intense look on Fai's face. This was a man not to be messed with.

They made a very quick plan to rescue Meine from the inside of the castle and geared up for a possible battle. They were hoping to use the darkness of the night to sneak around the castle but the look on the mage's face said that he wasn't going to wait any longer to rescue her.

They were on their way out of the palace when they saw Meine standing right outside the palace gates.

Fai immediately froze in his tracks, his eyes wide in surprise.

Everyone was shocked to see her there right when they were just about to head out to rescue her.

"Meine-san!" Syaoran called out loud as he made his way towards her. He expected Fai and Kurogane to run to her in excitement as well but he stopped in his tracks when he caught the sight of them glaring right at Meine. He looked at her. Meine's eyes were glazed over like she was void of any emotions. He had a feeling that the person in front of them wasn't truly Meine.

"Oi kid, is it really you?" Kurogane yelled. They got no answer.

Then Meine says she needs to kill Queen Suu and that's when the battle began. She attacked Syaoran who fought right back. Syaoran noticed that Meine just used the same kick as he does and he wondered where she learned that from.

Mokona and Sakura suddenly showed up behind them, momentarily distracting the men from the fight.

"Please don't hurt her! She's the real Meine-chan! I can sense the power of the feather coming from her! I think she's being controlled by it!" Mokona warned.

Meine attacked again but this time it was Kurogane who countered her. Syaoran ran to Sakura and told her to go back inside because he didn't want her to get hurt. He escorted her back inside, leaving Fai and Kurogane to deal with Meine. Fai was smiling but his eyebrows were furrowed.

He tried to call out to Meine but the princess just attacked him without showing any signs that she heard anything he said at all. The real shocker to them was how well she could actually fight. Both Fai and Kurogane knew that she had enough skills to defend herself, but they've never seen her outright attack anyone with much skill and power as she's doing right now.

Neither of them saw it coming when Meine jumped over them. She was a lot quicker than she normally is. Fai and Kurogane followed her and tried to stop her from moving forward. Kurogane took out his sword to use the sheath as a shield for Meine's attacks.

With one look to one another, Fai and Kurogane both agreed to try and knock her out without hurting her too much. Kurogane took her on as a distraction so Fai could do a surprise attack on her but just as Fai was about to knock her out she skillfully dodges out of the way. Fai realized that it wasn't Sakura's feather that gave Meine her current fighting skills. Meine was a very good fighter to begin with.

Kurogane was able to deflect her attack hard enough that it made her stagger and lose balance. Fai used this as a chance to restrain her and hopefully bring her back to her senses. He grabbed her from behind, pinning her arms down on her sides as he tightly wrapped his arms around her.

"Please wake up, Meine." He pleaded in her ears. "I don't want you to get hurt."

They were absolutely surprised when Meine used magic to attack. She casted a very powerful lightning magic, which knocked Fai away from her. She made the sky crackle with lightning out of the blue and then all of a sudden, streams of destructive lightning fell from the sky seemingly at random, causing the ground it touched to turn black from being burnt.

Fai and Kurogane both successfully dodged the onslaught of lightning. If Fai hadn't been a powerful magician himself, he would've died from the unexpected lighting attack which knocked him a few feet away from her.

Meine looked like she about to faint but she wasn't aware of it. She made a move to attack them again but she didn't have the energy to move anymore and so she just fell down to the ground. Fai immediately ran towards her but he was beat by a tall silver haired man who reached Meine first. He seemed to have come out of nowhere. They were unable to see his eyes because he was wearing a pair of white tinted glasses.

He grabbed Meine and moved to carry her out of the palace but before he was able take Meine away he was attacked by Kurogane and Syaoran. An angry Fai demanded that the stranger let Meine go or else. Gingetsu ignored them and just threw a smoke screen to escape. Fai tried to chase after him, calling out to Meine but by the time they could see again, the man was gone.

Kurogane placed a hand on Fai's shoulder to stop him from going, and shook his head. "It might be a trap. If you get hurt or die trying to save her she wouldn't be able to forgive herself for it." He told him.

Fai clenched his fists and turned around to head back into the castle.

Kazuhiko saw the whole thing and recognized the silver haired man. They told him that the man was named Gingetsu and he is the neighboring King's right hand man. Now they knew for sure that Meine was indeed in the other kingdom being held captive by the King. They were warned that attacking the enemy directly would be suicide because the King is a 3-leaf clover and is protected by a very strong 4-leaf artifact. There is someone who can help them get in but they must first make contact with him.

Fai demanded that they do it tonight and the group agreed.

* * *

Gingetsu brought Meine back to the King and reported that the girl can fight really well and can use powerful devastating magic which meant that she lied to them about her being useless. He mentioned the kind of magic she used and how powerful it was, confirming to the King that she is a 4-leaf clover. 4-leaf clovers are extremely rare, the only way to become one is to be born as one from a line of other 4-leaf clovers. Only a 4-leaf clover can produce 4-leaf clover children. A sinister plan formed in the King's mind.

His planned grew from just using the girl from another world to assassinate Queen Suu to having a bunch of 4-leaf clovers under his control. Meine was indeed the girl in the prophecy and she was going to bring ruin to Suu's kingdom.

The next time Meine regained consciousness, she was in a much bigger and grander room than the one she previously stayed in. The room was more lavish and regal. The circular bed was absolutely huge. It was placed in the very center of the room and was on a platform with stairs that led up to it. She had a massive headache and it took her a moment to recall the last thing that happened to her. She was knocked unconscious by Gingetsu after getting caught trying to steal the feather. Meine lifted up the sheets that were covering her body and that's when she finally noticed the shackle on her right ankle. She followed where the chain led and realized with dread that she was bound to the bed. She tried to break the chains using her all her strength but it didn't work. Meine was a lot stronger than an average person so something like a chain shouldn't be a problem for her to break free from.

Her attention was diverted to the doors that just opened as the King entered the room. He was shocked to see Meine awake and herself again. She was able to break free of the feather's mind control somehow which both alarmed and impressed the King. He climbed the few steps up to the bed and stood by the bed post.

"What do you want from me?" She asked. She was certain that if she served no purpose to the King she wouldn't be alive right now.

The King smirked and told her calmly, "You are going to be my wife." Meine inhaled sharply. "There is no point in trying to break free from those chains. They're made out of magic"

"There's no way I'd ever be the wife of someone like you!" she spat with a disgusted look on her face.

"You don't have a choice!" The king exclaimed angrily as he climbed on the bed, pinning Meine down with both hands. Meine tried to struggle but she started to feel dizzy.

Right before he could cast another mind control spell on Meine, a guard burst in his room and announced that the palace was under attack by intruders and they were on their way up here. The guard was not able to finish his statement as he was knocked unconscious by an attacker from behind.

Meine's eyes widened in both surprised and relief when he saw the man standing by the entrance "Fai!" she called out. He smiled at her. "Hello, Meine-chan! I'm here to take you back with us." He cheerfully greeted.

Fai caught the King's gaze. He kept his smiling façade on as he said "If you don't step away from her this instant you will die." With so much venom that it sent shivers down Meine's spine.

It took Fai all his restraint and willpower not to viciously attack the man on top of Meine when he saw that her ankle was shackled to the bed and that she was wearing nothing else but a little black dress which exposed most of her porcelain skin. Seeing her like that made him imagine things the King could've already done to her, and that only brought nothing but deep hatred and bloodlust towards the King.

The intense rage radiating from Fai made the King flinch but he was still able to hold his ground. Using his assumption that this "Fai" cared deeply about the girl, he grabbed Meine's shoulders and decided to use her to his advantage.

"If you take one step closer I won't be able to guarantee her safety." The King stated.

Fai's smile disappeared and was replaced by a cold calculated stare. "If you hurt her I will make sure your end won't be a swift one."

"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt her." He paused as the chains which bound Meine disintegrated. "You will." He laughed.

Meine raised her head, revealing an empty pair of amethyst eyes. "Kill him." The King ordered, pointing his finger at Fai.

At that, Meine lunged forward and went straight for Fai's throat with sharp talons. Luckily, Fai was quick enough to dodge her attack. He ignored her and tried to go for the King but before he could get any closer Meine was in front of him again.

"Meine… I don't want to hurt you." Fai said, his eyebrows furrowed. "Please snap out of it."

His words fell to deaf ears as Meine once again tried to attack him.

The King escaped the room while Fai was distracted with Meine.

Meine was incredibly agile. He was still very surprised by how well she could actually fight. This was her without her fear of getting hurt in battle. Fai wondered how she was so skilled in battle but so afraid to be in one at the same time. What exactly was it that the Witch took from her?

Fai had no choice. He casted a simple spell that tripped Meine. The girl fell to the floor, unable to catch herself. The mage used this chance to restrain her. He pinned her arms down with his and trapped her under his body. Meine struggled to break free of his grasp but Fai's anger amplified his strength so her struggles were all in vain.

"Stay still." Fai said calmly. He lowered his face towards hers until their lips met. It was a spell to break her free of the one she was under. The only way to cast it was through a kiss. Meine stopped struggling and after a few seconds she suddenly came to. Fai was no longer kissing her but he was still pinning her down with his body.

"Fai! I was-" she paused as she took in the position they were in. Her face turned bright red. Fai released his grip and stood up, extending a helping hand out to Meine.

"I'm so glad you're safe, Meine." Fai said, still holding her hand. He yanked her closer to him, wrapping his arms around her. He breathed a huge sigh of relief before kissing the top of the girl's head. "I was so worried about you…" He held her tighter. "I'm never going to let you out of my sight again."

Meine just allowed herself to relax in Fai's embrace, wrapping her arms around his waist. "I missed you." She said as she breathed in his scent. She didn't think she could ever miss Fai like this.

"Oi" A voice suddenly interrupted their tender moment. "Sorry to ruin your moment but we have to get moving. More guards are coming." Kurogane stated. His tone was void of its usual harshness, he was relieved to see Meine safe.

Fai let go of her, his usual smile was back on his face.

"Kuro-rin is right, we need to hurry up." Fai grabbed Meine's hand, leading her out of the room and down the hall.

As they ran out of the palace they bumped into Syaoran who stayed a floor below to fight off the guards who were coming to the King's aid.

"I'm glad you're safe, Meine-san." Syaoran said as he smoothly took off his cloak and handed it to the princess while they ran.

"Thank you. I'm so glad to see you again Syaoran-kun." She smiled as she wrapped his cloak around her.

"Princess Sakura and Mokona misses you very much."

Her expression brightened at the thought of seeing her friends again. "Then we better get out of here quick."

As they ran across the palace grounds, a hidden figure caught Meine's eyes. It was Ran and he was hiding behind a tree. Meine nodded at him, hoping to convey her thanks to him and to reassure him that she remembers the promise she made to him.

Fai saw him as well and gave his thanks to him through a nod. If it weren't for him leading Fai around the secret pathways in the castle, he wouldn't have reached Meine when he did. Ran then disappeared into the shadows.

Gingetsu awaited them by the exit along with a bunch of other guards.

"Let go of the girl." He stated coldly.

Syaoran, Kurogane and Fai automatically stepped in front of Meine to shield her from the silver haired man.

"There's no way we are ever going to let you have her again." Kurogane spat.

"Whoever gets in the way will die." Gingetsu made a move towards them and the guards took that as their cue to attack.

Kurogane charged towards the guards, easily taking them down one by one. Fai and Syaoran stayed behind to shield Meine from the General.

Gingetsu was a battle hardened fighter. His moves were smooth and deliberate. Not one single step wasted as everything was calculated and precise. Syaoran was knocked down by the force of his kick. Fai quickly joined in the fight to give Syaoran some time to recover from the attack.

As the mage expected, Gingetsu proved to be quite a tough opponent. Fai struggled to land a blow on him. Meine couldn't just stand there and watch her friends get hurt. She jumped in the battle so suddenly that it caught Gingetsu off guard. She was able to land a kick on him thus knocking him a few feet away from her.

He was up again in no time and this time his target was Meine. More soldiers came which distracted both Syaoran and Fai away from the general.

Meine was a lot quicker than Gingetsu but he was more experienced in life or death combat than her. Gingetsu was able to strike Meine down with a powerful kick as soon as he saw an opening. He knew not to injure her to the point of death, only enough to incapacitate her so he can capture her. Meine quickly got back up, her eyes flashed gold from the adrenaline of the hunt. Fai caught the moment her eyes turned a different colour. He didn't believe his eyes for a moment but was certain that Meine's eyes turned from purple to gold for an instant.

Kurogane, Syaoran, and Fai were back to Meine's side once again, all of them quickly noticing that she was having trouble staying on her feet.

"If you weren't Ran's important person we would most definitely kill you for hurting our friend." Fai said rather too calmly.

"Give the girl to me."

"No way." Fai was smiling but his eyes were intense, conveying a completely different emotion.

But before the mage could attack, the King's voice boomed.

"That's enough. I will no longer tolerate this farce. The girl belongs to me. All of you will be imprisoned and beheaded. And also since you are all from Queen Suu's court, I will take this as a declaration of war against my kingdom."

"I belong to no one." Meine glared, unable to stand on her own. She was grateful to Syaoran for supporting pretty much all her weight.

"I don't know how you keep breaking free from my spell but I assure you that the next one I will cast on you will be unbreakable."

"I warned you earlier, King." Fai took a step forward. "I'm not going to make it quick for you."

The next thing they knew, the King was on his knees. He was stuck on the ground. Gingetsu jumped over to his side immediately. Nobody knew what happened or how it happened but it seemed like the King sunk into the ground and is now unable to move his legs as they were literally a part of the ground now.

As the King realized that his magic was not working, he whipped out the feather in an attempt to rectify the situation but the moment that it came into view, Syaoran leapt into action, handing Meine over to Kurogane.

"That feather is not yours."

Gingetsu wasn't able to move at all when Syaoran went for the feather. He tried with all his might but he was unable to move. He watched helplessly as Syaoran carefully tucked the feather away inside his pocket.

Meanwhile, Fai just stood unmoving in front of Meine, and Kurogane. There was a massive wave of power coming from the mage so no one dared to approach him. They both realized that it was all Fai's doing. He was using his magic without uttering a single spell.

"The King's power is no more! Do what you will!" Ran's voice echoed through the area. From the shadows outside the gate emerged an army of men armed with weapons. A revolution unfolded right in front of them. It was the King's own oppressed people who turned against him to earn back their freedom and to rid themselves of an evil tyrant. They waited and waited and waited for the perfect opportunity to strike and overthrow the King. Ran was a great help to them, serving as their man on the inside. He was their spy. When Queen Suu sent word to Ran that there was going to be a rescue mission for the girl, Ran in turn sent word out to gather the rebels and await his signal to attack for there was finally going to be a chance for them to strike.

The King was lost within the crowd of rebels that gathered around him, who each waited for their chance to exact their revenge on him. Without his powers, he was as helpless as a caged bird with clipped wings.

Not far from the castle was Queen Suu, and her army. They were there to stabilize the country after the revolution is completed. They will keep the kingdom functioning while the people decide who their next ruler is going to be. Queen Suu hoped to get the people to vote to unite the two kingdoms together to make a one big powerful country under her rule and protection.

* * *

It was a quiet ride back to Queen Suu's palace. No one wanted to bring up what Fai did to the King and Gingetsu and no one really knew what to say. All this time he had been more of a spectator than a fighter, and no one has actually seen him use his magic before. Also, the way that he had his arm wrapped around a sleeping Meine very protectively with a serious look on his face made the atmosphere in the carriage very tense.

When they arrived in the palace, Fai smiled at his companions and finally broke the long silence, "I'm sorry if I shocked everyone." He said casually. "Even I don't know what came over me in that moment."

"It's alright, I'm just glad that nothing horrible happened to any of us." Syaoran replied, relieved that the blonde mage seemed to be back to his normal self.

Kurogane remained silent but Fai knew that he would be hearing about it sooner or later. Fai picked Meine up who was still asleep and brought her over to his room where Sakura, who was holding Mokona, followed him into.

"Fai-san, is Meine-chan alright? Is she injured?" Sakura asked as she watched Fai gently lay the raven haired princess down on his bed, concern present in her voice.

The mage gave Sakura a very reassuring smile. "Don't worry Sakura-chan, Meine is alright. She's safe now." He turned his attention back to the other princess and started to carefully unwrap her from Syaoran's cloak.

Syaoran quietly entered the room and placed his hand on Sakura's shoulder who was hovering over Fai. "Princess, let's leave them alone for now." He whispered to her. Sakura seemed perplexed at first by Syaoran's request but after looking at Fai's expression, she understood. They both walked out of the room as silently as they could.

After hearing the door close, Fai knelt beside the bed.

"What have you done to me?" He asked the sleeping princess, taking her hand into his. "Why can't I control myself when it comes to you?" He said, closing his eyes as he remembered how he felt when he saw that filthy King on top of Meine. All he felt was rage and bloodlust in that moment. It was a miracle that he was able to stop himself from seeing all red and killing the King right then and there while he was still on top of her. Even now it still made him angry beyond belief, but knowing that his princess was safely back within his arms again helped a lot with calming him down.

Fai never imagined in all of his life that he would ever feel this way towards anyone; after being alive for several centuries he thought that he was completely immune to these kinds of emotions. His vow to never use magic again felt meaningless when it came to protecting her.

Fai was brought back to the current situation when Meine's hand twitched. He came closer to her and watched as her eyelids opened, revealing a pair of captivating amethyst eyes. She seemed to be unware of her surroundings as she tried to shake off the daze of waking up from sleep. "Fai..?" she mumbled, her voice a little hoarse.

"Yes, princess?" he smiled, still not letting go of her hand.

"I'm glad…" she said softly, seemingly not completely awake yet. "I thought it was all just a dream…" she continued "I've missed you…"

A feeling of warmth swelled in his chest. "So have I."

Meine looked like she was about to fall back to sleep. "That makes me happy…" she mumbled, struggling to keep her eyes open.

"You're safe now." He spoke gently. "I'm right here with you."

"Will you still be here when I wake up...?"

"I'm not going anywhere, my princess." He said, lightly squeezing her hand.

"Promise?"

"Promise."

Meine finally let sleep take over her again.

Fai shakily breathed out the breath he didn't even know he was holding. He climbed up the bed and laid down beside the princess, taking her into his arms. He gave her a very tender kiss on the forehead before finally getting his first sleep ever since they arrived in this world. The smile on his lips remained as he drifted off to sleep.

For the first time in a very long time, Fai genuinely wanted to live.

* * *

When Meine woke up the following day, the sun was already high up in the sky. A blush formed across her face when she realized that she was in the same bed as Fai and was enveloped in his warm embrace. She didn't know what else to do so she stayed as still as she possible could. Meine had no recollection of how she got in this room and how she ended up sleeping right next to the blond mage.

"Good morning" Fai greeted, sending goosebumps down Meine's neck. She couldn't help but let out a tiny yelp after being startled.

His chuckle made her blush even more. "Have you been awake for a while now?" he asked, slightly moving away from Meine so he can see her face. The redness of her cheeks made him want to tease her even more just to see how much more red she could turn.

Meine could only shake her head in response, for some reason she was having a hard time forming words with her mouth. Her heart felt like it was about to jump out of her chest as she stared at the mage. He looked ethereal from the sunlight coming in from the window, his eyes captivating her as she noticed how much they resembled the clear blue skies. She was suddenly struck by a sense of familiarity.

"Fai…" She started.

"Hmm? What is it, Meine-chan?"

"Have we met before?" She asked as she stared right at his face.  _Where have I seen this before?_

He was taken aback by her straightforwardness.

"I wish we can stay like this for a little while longer." He said with sincerity as he affectionately tucked her hair behind her ear, completely avoiding the question.

Before Meine could respond, a knock came from the door.

She sat up as Fai quickly got up to greet the person at the door. Sakura and Syaoran, along with Mokona came into view as the door opened.

"Good morning, Meine-san!" Syaoran greeted with a bright smile. Sakura on the other hand ran towards her and she and Mokona gave her a big hug.

"We're so glad to have you back, Meine-chan!" Sakura said

"Mokona missed Meine very much!" The little one cried out.

Their words filled her with so much joy and love for her companions. "Good morning, Syaoran!" she greeted back. "I'm so glad to see everyone again." She said as she returned Sakura's hug. "I missed Mokona a lot too." She said, smiling at their fluffy companion.

"Mokona is very sorry that Meine ended up far away from everyone. It's Mokona's fault that you had to go through a lot by yourself." Mokona cried, tears falling down from its cheeks.

"No it's not your fault at all, please don't blame yourself!" The raven haired girl said as she wiped Mokona's tears away. "What matters now is that I'm back and with everyone again!" she beamed.

"That's right!" Sakura affirmed with a bright smile.

Fai leaned on the door frame as he watched the happy scene unfold with a delighted look on his face. Spending every day with his companions made him feel emotions that he had never felt before, emotions which he never imagined he would ever experience. Moments like this are the ones he never wanted to end.

"Fai-san." A voice interrupted his thoughts. He turned around to see Kazuhiko standing right behind him.

"If you are feeling up for it, Queen Suu wishes to speak with everyone in the throne room." He stated.

"Of course." Came Fai's cheerful response. "Kuro-hyuu~ why don't you step out of the shadows and let the girls know about what Kazuhiko just said?" he grinned. "I'm sure you missed her too."

The ninja entered the room without looking at him.

* * *

"Ran!" Meine called excitedly as she entered the throne room.

The boy turned around to see his friend running towards him. He opened his arms to receive a big hug. "I'm so glad you're alright!" she cried. Meine had no idea what happened after the revolution started, she didn't even remember losing consciousness.

Ran returned her hug with just as much elation. "It's all thanks to you! Your arrival changed everything!" he exclaimed. Something about him was different, his aura has changed. Gone was the gloom that he used to have with him.

Meine let go of her friend to see the man standing behind him. It was Gingetsu. But he wasn't the Gingetsu that she knew, this one had emotions in his eyes.

"I would like to apologize for my behavior towards you and your friends." The silver haired man bowed his head. Meine was pleased to see that Gingetsu was finally free of the feather's mind control, he must've snapped out of it the moment Sakura absorbed her feather. That means that he could be together again with Ran.

Meine shook her head, "It's alright. I know none of it was your fault. Please don't apologize for it." She smiled.

"Thank you."

The rest of the group gathered around them as Queen Suu took a seat on her throne.

"I have great news for everyone! Thanks to your group we were finally able to free the kingdom of Pyrethrum from an evil and tyrannical reign. You have helped usher in a new era for both kingdoms and for that, I offer you my sincerest gratitude." Suu said, placing her right hand over her heart to express her sincere thanks to the group in front of her. "I wish to reward all of you handsomely for your deeds!" she cheered.

"I think we're alright." Ran said, entangling his hand with Gingetsu's. "I already have all that I want right here." Gingetsu smiled at him fondly.

"Thank you so much, your highness. But I'm afraid we have to get going soon." Syaoran said.

"Already? Why so early?" Suu pouted, obviously saddened by the news.

"We must continue searching for Sakura's feathers in other worlds."

"But-" Kazuhiko put a hand on the Queen's should to stop her from saying anything further. He understood that the travelers had to resume with their quest as they have already found what they were looking for in this world. Suu looked at him with sad eyes, nonetheless he had to keep her from making things sadder for the group.

"Well you should at least take some gems and gold with you! It's the least we could do." She said as she gestured at the chests by her feet, hoping that the group would accept.

The travelers looked amongst each other as they considered what to do with the Queen's generous offer.

"Maybe we can trade it in another world." Fai whispered with a grin on his face.

"I don't think we should accept it," Meine interjected. "We did what we did to get Sakura's feathers after all. Saving the kingdom just became a part of it."

"I think Meine-san is right." Syaoran whispered back. "It's quite a touching gesture but we can't possibly accept. The money should go towards the people, not us."

Sakura found herself nodding to what Syaoran was saying.

"What do you think Kuro-papa?" the mage teased.

"KURO WHAT NOW?!" Kurogane snapped, breaking the silence that filled the room for a few seconds.

***Paa~fu***

Everyone turned simultaneously towards the source of the sound, all reacting at the same time.

"AH! MOKONA!" Syaoran yelled as he realized what the little manju had done.

"Oh my…" was all that Meine could say.

"Ara~ ara~" Fai whistled.

"Moko-chan!" Sakura shrieked.

"OI!" Kurogane exclaimed.

Much to Suu's delight, Mokona had decided by itself to take all the gifts offered by inhaling them. It paused for a second before turning towards the group.

"Teehee!~" Mokona grinned.

"TEEHEE MY ASS!" Kurogane shouted as he grabbed Mokona. "Spit it out you annoying little manju!" he yelled as he stretched the creature's mouth to forcibly remove the chests. Mokona was just laughing and it appeared to be enjoying itself as Kurogane manhandled it.

"Please keep it, it's the least we can do." Suu beamed, very amused by what just happened. "The probability of the two kingdoms merging as one is very high, I couldn't be more pleased with how everything turned out!"

Suddenly a bright light emerged from under their feet. They knew that it was time for them to leave this world.

"What's going on?" Ran asked, as he watched the group started to be engulfed by some liquid like thing.

"I'm sorry, it seems like it's time for us to say goodbye." Meine replied sadly.

"No… I wanted to spend more time with you…" The boy said sorrowfully.

"Me too…" Meine gave a weak smile, her heart breaking as she realized that she might never see Ran again. "I'm really glad to have met you. I wish you all the happiness forever with Gingetsu!" She cried out as the light got brighter. Signaling that they only had seconds left before they disappear from the land of Clover forever.

"Thank you! I hope we meet again! I wish you and Fai happiness as well!" Ran exclaimed as the light fully engulfed the group.

The group vanished along with the sudden burst of light.

"Till we meet again, Meine." Ran whispered, his eyes wet with tears.

* * *

As they transported to another world, Fai made sure to hold Meine as closely and tightly as he could against him.

Meine looked at him in wonder.

"Just to make sure you don't end up far away from me again." He grinned.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! 
> 
> I would love to hear your thoughts so please don't hesitate to leave a lovely review or a constructive criticism!


	4. IV: Outo Country

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I M P O R T A N T note down below

It was another normal day in the Land of Outo until a white creature appeared above the sky and dropped five humans unto the ground. Meine blushed when she found herself in the position on top of the smiling blond mage. Something shifted within her ever since she woke up in his arms; somehow Fai had become more than just a simple companion to her. She ended up sitting on his lap with her hands and head leaning against his chest when he sat up. Being so close to him gave her butterflies in her stomach.

"Now, what country have we come into this time?" Fai asked aloud as he prompted Meine up to her feet before getting up himself.

Suddenly, five women wearing identical outfits stepped forward to them. They wore a simple black long-sleeve dress with white collar, and white cuffs. They wore a plain off-white apron with a small flower emblem over it. Their outfit reminded Meine of the dresses the female servants wore in the palace. "Welcome to the Land of Outo!" they said in unison. They screamed and ran towards the travelers and pulled each one of them into their arms.

"Hyuu~! There are beautiful girls everywhere!" Fai whistled as a girl fawned over him. He had his hands on his hips as the girl with him pulled his head down so she can see his face better.

Meine tried to free herself from the woman who was hugging, more like smothering, her. "Quit it!" she exclaimed weakly as she felt a hand on her backside. These girls were very touchy.

"Look at all the costumes everyone is wearing!" commented the woman hugging Kurogane. "You must have come from a different world, didn't you?"

The five of them whipped round to look at the woman who spoke, their eyes wide in shock.

"Other people have come to this country from other worlds?" Syaoran asked, sweating as he tried to wiggle himself out of the woman's tight embrace.

"Of course! Everyone comes from near and far to enjoy the wonders of Outo!" Said the short haired woman smothering Meine.

The woman hugging Syaoran prevented him from speaking because she was hugging him too tight in her arms. "You haven't registered yet, have you?"

They all shook their heads and the women all had worried faces. "Oh dear, you have to go to the city hall immediately! We will take you there!"

Without another word, the four women dragged them to the middle of the city and into a huge building nearly resembling a palace. In big letters, it had a sign labelled : "Country of Outo: Central City Hall."

A kind lady behind the counter labeled "Express Assessment" helped them. Meine followed Syaoran and Fai to the counter, while Kurogane and Sakura took the liberty of sitting it out on the bench across the room.

"Welcome to the country of Outo!" the desk lady greeted them pleasantly. "Please put your names here." She handed Fai five pieces of papers with writings that none of them recognized.

Fai stared at the papers, a mischievous smile crossing his lips. "Is it absolutely necessary that we give you the same ones we've been using?" he asked playfully. "Is an alias acceptable?"

"Yes." The lady replied.

Fai's grin widened. "Then I'll enter everyone's names" he began writing on the papers. "I could write this and this, right?" he inquired in a sing-song voice.

"Um…" Meine turned to look at Syaoran who had the same alarmed face as her. "Fai… what are you doing?" she asked, feeling half amused, half annoyed at the same time. She didn't like where this was going but she was too amused to stop it.

Syaoran caught a glimpse of the papers as Fai handed them in. He looked uncomfortable. "Fai-san! Those are…" The lady took the papers before Syaoran could finish.

Meine covered her eyes trying to block out what was happening. She felt childish for not stopping Fai from doing something ridiculous. She shook her head and headed towards Kurogane who had a sleeping Sakura leaning on his shoulder.

"What?" Kurogane asked, raising an eyebrow.

She sighed audibly in reply before sitting down.

"Kuro-woof-woof! Please bring the bag!" Fai said loudly over his shoulder to the man clad in black beside Meine.

Kurogane stood up and grabbed the sack beside him. "QUIT CALLING ME LIKE I'M SOME KIND OF DOG!" he screamed. It was so loud that some people around them started staring and Sakura who was peacefully sleeping jumped awake.

* * *

The five of them were given the address of the house they were going to stay in. It was spacious and had a big room in front while there were several smaller rooms at the upper floor. But for the night, they were going to sleep in the main room at the front, they wanted to be sure that there were no threats in this world before they start to sleep separately.

"I'm glad we brought the clothes we wore when we were in the other worlds." Fai said as he laid out his fluffy white coat on the floor.

"And also thanks to Queen Suu!" Mokona exclaimed happily. "We were able to afford this place thanks to a bit of her reward!"

Just as the four of them were starting to loosen up a bit and relax, Kurogane suddenly dropped a warning. "Maybe you guys shouldn't get too cozy. It's possible that we are being watched."

Meine turned her attention to him and walked over to where he was sitting with a mischievous look on her face.

"Kurogane needs to relax more. Your eyebrows are going to be stuck together permanently if you keep this up." She teased, furrowing her brows together to mimic Kurogane's.

She heard everyone chuckle behind her. Kurogane huffed before responding "You're starting to become like the mage, brat."

Meine smiled playfully in response. She turned around to look for a spot to sleep in.

"Come sleep with me tonight, Meine-chan." Fai invited, patting the space right beside him.

She found herself sitting beside the mage before she could even feel bashful over the fact that they will pretty much be cuddling tonight. Being so close to him made the butterflies in her stomach go in a frenzy.  _'What's wrong with me?'_  she thought to herself, placing a hand on her chest to try and calm her pounding heart. She could feel his warmth right next to her and something deep down inside her begged for more it.  _'It's just Fai! It's just Fai!'_  she repeated in her head trying to convince herself that what she felt for him was just gratitude.

"Thank you." She said, a blush appearing on her cheeks. She laid down facing the other way so that she would not have to be face to face with Fai. She didn't want him to hear how loud her heart was beating.

Syaoran smiled and leaned against the sofa where Sakura was already sleeping in. "Now that we have found a nice place to stay, next is we have to find the princess's feather."

Mokona nodded and it emitted a faint yellowish glow before it bounced to rest on the armrest of the sofa. "It's very slight, but Mokona senses the power of Sakura's feather.

After a few more minutes of discussing a few things of what to do tomorrow, the five of them (including Mokona) then fell asleep.

Meine slept lightly that night, mainly because of the man who was spooning her from behind, but she couldn't ignore that she was very warm inside his coat and she was very comfortable, except of course of the feeling of someone breathing on her neck. She wondered why he wasn't facing the other way like she was. Normally, she would've commented on that already but somehow she didn't hate feeling Fai breathe right next to her.

It was a few hours later when Meine felt something shift just outside the house and she noticed the streetlight flicker.

"Are you awake?" Kurogane asked softly.

"Yes." Syaoran replied.

"Something doesn't feel right." Meine whispered as she turned to face Fai, ignoring the blush growing on her face as she noticed that his lips touched her nose. She pulled away slightly and watched a smile appeared on his features before his eyes opened slightly. "There's something outside." He added.

The lights flickered once again and a creature with a weird aura appeared and broke through the glass windows. It was a huge monster with an incredibly long tail and sharp claws, with spikes covering the entirety of its back. Its face was very grotesque; its eyes were huge gaping black holes on its face. The long hair on its head effectively made it more nightmarish.

The four of them jumped out of the way and evaded the flying shards of glass, Kurogane grabbing the sleeping princess who woke up from the noise and Meine grabbing Mokona.

"We just moved in and already we have guests!" Fai said as they set a groggy Sakura on her feet away from the monster. "Are you hurt, Meine-chan?" he asked as he eyed her for any injuries.

"We didn't invite this one though." Kurogane smirked.

Meine shook her head in response. "Sakura-chan let's move out of the way." She said, taking the other princess' hand to take her to the other side of the room far away from the unearthly intruder.

Syaoran, the one nearest the monster was attacked and he got a cut on his right arm. He stumbled to the side. Sakura screamed his name and held on to Meine's sleeve.

In the end, to avoid getting hurt any more, he jumped high into the air and landed a hard kick on the center of the monster's head and it disappeared.

Within a split second the window behind the two princesses shattered as another Oni pierced through it. Meine had the sense to push Sakura away from harm the moment she noticed the movement from behind them. However, she was grabbed by the Oni which was almost as tall as the house they were in. She screamed involuntarily as terror washed over her like a splash of ice cold water. The Oni had lifted her up and was crushing her in its black hands. It felt like being crushed between two jagged stone walls. "HELP!" she cried out as the Oni's grip got too painful.

The last thing she saw before the darkness clouded her vision was Fai and Kurogane running towards her.

* * *

Meine woke up the following day on a bed she didn't remember getting in to. She sat up slowly, wincing as her body ached in pain. She suddenly remembered the utter terror she felt as she was being crushed to death by the monster. She trembled, unable to move nor utter a single word. If it wasn't for her companions, she would've been dead already. She couldn't muster up enough strength to free herself from the Oni's grasps as she was too focused on the pain she felt. All she could think of in that moment was how much it hurt and how much she wanted back her ability to heal quickly. "I want to go home…" she whispered to herself as tears welled up, her voice hoarse and shaky.

A knock on the door brought her back to reality. She shook off her dread, aggressively wiping the tears from her eyes in an attempt to look calm and normal. She tested her voice a couple of times before answering. "Come in." she managed to say normally.

The door swung open revealing the blond mage. "Good morning, or rather good afternoon, Princess." He greeted. Meine took note of how completely different his aura was. He was smiling but she could clearly sense that something was bothering him.

Fai made his way over to her bed and sat down right beside her, placing the cup of water he had brought with him on the bedside table. Meine stared at him as he scanned her for any new bruises. "How are you feeling?" he asked, his voice laced with deep concern. Something Meine is still surprised to hear coming from Fai.

"I feel fine." She lied. She must've said it too monotonously because his eyebrows furrowed. He knows she's lying.

"Please don't lie to me." He replied seriously, which was so unlike him. "I don't like it when you lie to me, Princess."

Meine's heart ached terribly in her chest from the guilt she felt. She clenched her fist and was surprised when Fai placed his hand on it. "…I'm sorry." She mumbled.

"It's alright," he continued to stare into her with concern. "I just hate it when you get hurt. Especially when I'm right there with you. I feel like I've failed to keep my promise to you."

"You didn't fail me." She reassured. "I'm right here and I'm alive. You did a great job protecting me."

Fai's expression softened. "You are impossible." The corners of his mouth began to lift only just for second before they straightened.

"I want to lock you up in a cage and keep you in my pocket." He stated with a straight face.

Meine's eyes widened in shock. "What?" She felt some truth in his jest.

"You seem to have a way of finding trouble and getting in one." He responded as a matter-of-factly.

"I don't actively pursue it." She replied curtly. She was starting to get mad. It felt like he was being condescending towards her.

Fai reeled back slowly and turned away from her. Meine watched as he took a deep breath as if he was trying to calm himself down. His eyes remained closed as he tried to steady his breathing.  _That's… that's what my mother taught me to do._ Her mind supplied. Chills suddenly ran down her spine as her mind was whisked away elsewhere.

….

_"….all better…. mother said…."_

_The faceless figure in front of her nodded._

_"…you should…. I will…."_

_She couldn't make out most of the words that were coming from her own mouth. The memory she was remembering was very hazy. Faces and voices were quite unclear._

_A mouth materialized on the faceless figure she was talking to. "Eira… kind…." The person smiled. "Thank…"_

_Meine tried harder to make the words out but it proved to be an impossible task as most of the words came out as a buzz. She wanted to see who the other person was but she couldn't make anything out other than their mouth, which was still mostly a blur._

_"…. anytime…. you…" Meine said in the memory. "…. promise…"_

"Yuui." she said out loud without realizing it.

The sound of glass breaking brought her back to the present.

"Fai! What happened? Are you alright?" Meine was suddenly up. She stood in front of Fai and checked to see if he was hurt. She was taken aback by the petrified look on his face. "Fai!" she called out, cupping his face with both hands. "Fai! Snap out of it!"

The blond mage gasped, his eyes immediately went to Meine's face. The petrified look on his face was replaced with blind fury. "Why did you say that name?!" He bellowed . "Who are you?!" Everything that happened next was a blur.

"Fai… stop… you're hurting me…" Meine pleaded. "It hurts… please…. stop." She struggled to catch some breath, wrapping her hands around Fai's wrists to try and pry them off her neck. "I… can't… breathe..."

" _Eira_ ," a voice in his head whispered. " _Don't hurt Eira_ " it repeated. Fai snapped out of his angry daze and he realized what he was doing. He was on the floor on top of Meine and he was strangling her. With a gasp, he let go of her immediately and fell back. His forehead was covered with a thin film of sweat as he panted as though he was just running. Fai had a horrified expression on his face. "I… what?..." he breathed. He looked at his trembling hands in disbelief.  _I just tried to kill Meine._

Meine wheezed and coughed, trying to get a hold of herself and steady her breathing. She was horrified by what just happened. They both stayed on the floor, shocked and dazed for a few minutes before one of them spoke.

"Fai…" the princess started, extending her arms to caress the mage's cheeks. She willed her hands to stop trembling as she tried to find the proper words to say to calm him down. Something about his quivering hunched figure reminded her of someone. " _Yuui_." Her mind whispered.

"Yuui?" she tested the name on her lips. The name felt so familiar, so dear to her like she has said it a million times over. A rush of memories flooded into her as she said the name once more. Unbeknownst to her, magic flowed from her to Fai causing both of them to see the same memory.

_A blond boy with sky blue eyes laughed as she made a huge snowflake appear out of thin air. She made it spin and tiny little snowflakes broke off as it spun above them. A snowflake landed on her nose causing her to let out a tiny sneeze. The boy kept laughing._

_She felt the same joy the young her felt in that moment as she watched the happiness radiating from his face._

_"How are you doing that?" the boy inquired, wonder filled his eyes._

_"I'm made out of ice and snow, that's why I can make these with my mind! That's what my mother told me today." She answered, smiling._

_"Wow! I wish I was made of snow too!" he exclaimed as he stared right at her face._

_"Why do you wish that?"_

_"If I was made out of snow too maybe I can be with you in your land forever."_

_She reached out her tiny hand to touch the boy but her hand just went through him. Sadness welled up inside her. She wanted to cry but fought against doing so. She's worked so hard to cheer him up today more so than other days. It took her hours to get a tiny smile from him. Today must've been a particularly difficult day. She didn't want to see her friend sad again. Meine instead flashed him a cheerful smile in hopes that it will keep his spirits up._

_"It's okay!" she beamed. "My mother can see the future and she said that we will be together someday!"_

_His face brightened. "Really? Do you promise?"_

_"Yes! We will definitely be together!"_

_"I can't wait to be with you forever." He held both his hands up, inviting her to put hers on them. Meine hovered her hands just above his. It looked like they were actually touching. "You're the only person who has ever been kind to me." he continued. "When we see each other in person I'll introduce you to my brother!"_

_"I can't wait!" she enthused. "We will be together forever, Yuui!"_

The warm memory ended. They remembered exactly who each other was the moment their eyes locked.

"You're…" they both said at the same time as they looked at each other. Finally it all makes sense. The feeling of familiarity, the warmth and happiness they both got from one another. The feeling of knowing each other for a lifetime the moment that they met finally makes sense. They finally found each other.

_**The price is your memories of one another.** _

_**You two are quite powerful.** _

_**Being able to break my spell like that takes tremendous power.** _

The memory disappeared just as suddenly as it appeared. Neither of them could remember what happened after Meine first said "Yuui".

They both sat on the floor, confused and panting. "What on earth just happened?" Fai asked as he looked at Meine who was also on the floor, and then at shattered glass right beside her. He couldn't remember how they both ended up on the floor together.

"I have no idea." she replied. Fai stood up and offered her a hand which she gladly accepted. "How did we end up down there? Why can't I remember anything?" Meine tried hard to search her mind for any inkling of what just transpired between them but she couldn't come up with anything. Her mind was completely blank.

"I'll bring you a new glass of water. Wait here." Fai left the room abruptly. He did not want to show his distress to the princess.

As the door closed behind him, he grabbed his head with both hands and attempted to recover his lost memory. Someone had deliberately erased both their memories and it alarmed him how he didn't know how it happened or who did it. He cursed at himself in frustration.

There was definitely something different about Meine. He knew for sure that she was a vampire as it was confirmed to him when he saw her eyes flash gold, but there was something else to her that he could not figure out. This bothered him tremendously as he has always been able to sense immediately what powers people have; it was one of his special abilities that came naturally to him from having strong magical powers.

He decided it was something he could figure out later on, for now they had other things at hand. He made sure that he was all composed before heading downstairs to join his friends.

...

Meine stood in place for a couple of minutes, trying to figure out anything at all. It felt like she just lost something precious but she has no idea what it was. A feeling of emptiness washed over her as she desperately searched her mind for what she could have lost that have made her so sad. She eventually decided to put it all aside for now after remembering that everyone was waiting for her to come down. She went down to the first floor where she found the rest of her companions working in the big room. The glass window that was broken by that monster last night was fixed, there were several round tables in the room, and they were wearing new clothes. Sakura was also there in the room but she was still asleep on top of the sofa.

"Good morning, Meine-san!" Syaoran said with a smile as he stood by the wooden counter.

Meine felt refreshed after seeing her friends. "Good morning, Syaoran." she smiled. "How I did get up there?" She asked as she took a seat on one of the high chairs and fiddled with the glass Fai had set in front of her "I don't remember what happened after..." She froze in mid-sentence as she recalled the events of last night. She remembered small glimpses of Kurogane slashing the monster with his sword, then Fai's serious face, and then darkness as she fully lost consciousness.

"Kurogane-san brought you up there after they killed the second Oni last night." Syaoran explained.

"Kurogane-san did?..." she asked. She glanced at Kurogane and was startled when he caught her gaze. She was about to apologize to him for causing him trouble but he glared at her as if to say  _'Don't mention it, brat_ ' So instead she gave him a little nod to thank him. She was glad when his expression softened. She turned her attention back to Syaoran and asked: "The monsters are called Oni?"

"That's right! When you kill one, you get a reward." Fai answered. "The Onis we killed last night had a huge reward and it was more than enough that we bought clothes and we found jobs."

"Jobs…?"

The blond mage nodded. "Yes, jobs. Kuro-sama and Syaoran-kun are going to be Oni hunters while you, me, Sakura-chan and Mokona will be running a café here. And I will assign you as my own personal assistant!"

"So basically I will be like your attendant?" Meine asked. Fai nodded with a smile. Her gaze lingered at him, searching his face for something that would remind her of what happened upstairs. He caught her eye and gently shook his head. Meine understood this as he also was not able to recall anything. She went to a different topic instead. "Why a café by the way? Don't you want to be an Oni hunter too, Fai?"

"Hmm. Oni hunters has to come in pairs." He stared at her. "Syaoran-kun was already taken!" he grinned.

"But..."  _what about me?_  She wanted to say but then she understood what Fai was trying to tell her. She can't be an Oni hunter. Shame and resentment burned within her.

Just then, Sakura slowly stirred awake and sat up. Fai once again explained what had happened last night and explained the clothes that they were wearing. Sakura just sat there listening to their explanation and stood up to fold her own sheets.

"I was wondering if Sakura-chan, would work the café with me." Fai requested.

"Yes, it would be my honor." Sakura replied, bowing slightly.

The two ladies got pushed inside two separate rooms in the second floor and were each handed a set of clothes to change into. Meine sat there staring at the outfit given to her and gave a long sigh before changing into it.

A few minutes later, she heard the door in the other room where Sakura was open and heard slow footsteps on the stairs and she decided that she couldn't hide what she was wearing any longer. As soon as she heard voices in the main room, she went down the stairs.

She peeked out a little and saw Sakura wearing clothes similar to what Kurogane was wearing but it was fit for girls. She suddenly felt annoyed at why the mage picked this for her to wear as a servant.

She stepped out of her hiding place and the rest of them in the main room froze and stared at her. Meine couldn't hide the blush on her cheeks. She wore a corseted, off-shoulder black dress that covered ¾ of her thighs. The hem of the dress was trimmed with lace and it had several petticoats underneath to make the skirt pop up a little. Black, knee-high socks and black platform heels are what she used for footwear. She also wore a white apron that is tied around the waist along with a black choker to adorn her neck. She also had a white lace ribbon to tie her hair with.

Fai whistled, Syaoran and Sakura gaped at her with their mouths in an "O" shape, and Kurogane was blushing and looking away.

"Why on earth did you choose this as my uniform?" Meine asked glaring at Fai. She was no longer embarrassed by what she was wearing but rather she was pissed at the stupid look that the blond man was giving him.

He raised his arms up in defeat when Meine grab hold of his collar. "It was the only one left that the guy in the shop could sell to us so I took it."  _Just kidding_. He added in his head. The truth was there were a lot more other clothes available but the moment he saw the outfit, he knew that he just had to get it for Meine. "You look beautiful, Meine-chan."

Meine let go of the mage to cover her face with both hands as she tried to hide her blush and she sat on one of the high chairs while mumbling to herself "I'm the Crown Princess you know… I shouldn't be wearing this kind of outfit". She then tried to ignore Fai when he walked towards her but she turned completely crimson when he had tucked a strand of stray hair behind her ear and smiled at her.

Suddenly, Mokona's eyes opened. It opened its mouth and a plate with six pieces of brown, mountain-shaped food appeared and it landed on the table.

"What's this?" Fai asked. Meine jumped out of her seat when she sniffed the air as she recognized the familiar scent of something sweet.

"It's from Yuuko!" Mokona said, like the rest of the ladies, it was also wearing an apron around itself. "It's called chocolate fondant! You eat it while it's hot!"

As soon as Meine heard the world chocolate, she eagerly took a seat in front of a table beside Kurogane. As soon as a piece and some tea were served in front of her, she immediately took a bite. Its hot creamy center really satisfied Meine's love for sweets as she craved for more than just one serving. Watching the sweet lover eat her share, the others just couldn't wait to have a taste of their own share since it seemed really delicious when Meine was eating it.

* * *

Syaoran and Kurogane then left when the sun set to hunt for more Oni and earn more cash for them to spend. Meine, Sakura, Fai, and Mokona were then left alone back in the café to prepare for their grand opening tomorrow. Fai and Mokona were making the sign while Sakura and Meine were folding lots of napkins.

They were having a quiet and peaceful time and the only sounds they were hearing was the meowing of Fai and Mokona.

Meine was enjoying her time until she felt the murderous aura of a familiar person stomping towards the front door. A few seconds later, the door flew open and Kurogane entered the room with a very angry look.

"YOU BASTARD!" he screamed at Fai as he stomped towards him. The mage just sat there on the floor grinning at the taller man, which pissed Kurogane even more.

"You little…" he growled "You went and gave us weird names, didn't you?"

"The girl at the city hall told me that we could use aliases, but I don't know the writing system here…" Fai took a piece of paper that were scattered on the floor to prevent the paint from staining the tiles and took a brush and swiftly drew a picture of two dogs, one bigger than the other. He then showed the drawing to the two hunters. "So I drew this!"

"Kuro-pon's name is Big Puppy, while Syaoran-kun's name is Little Puppy."

He then took another piece of paper and continued drawing two animals on the paper and another one of a different kind on another piece and held it out to show them when he finished. "Sakura-chan and my name are Little Kitten and Big Kitten respectively." he said as he held the piece of paper with two cats drawn on them. "Meine-chan's name is Usagi-san!"

Meine, who didn't bother to stand up from her seat, looked up from the napkin she was folding. She thought it was amusing at the time but after hearing it said out loud…

Fai smiled and nodded. "Because of that, since me and Sakura-chan are kittens and you are the bunny… I decided to draw this as a sign!" He then picked up from the floor the wooden sideboard he was working on. On it was a picture of a black cat's head with yellow eyes… beside it was a drawing of a small rabbit head right beside the picture of the cat.

Meine noticed that Kurogane was fuming and she froze when she heard the click of the unsheathing of his sword. "Please calm down, Kurogane-san." She whispered to him since he was standing so near. "What did I say about furrowing your eyebrows too much?" she teased.

"Shut up, Little Bunny!" He glared at her before he resumed on glaring at the mage. "I'm going to knock those stupid thoughts out of your stupid head!" he threatened and pulled out his entire sword and ran after the mage who was just skipping as he evaded the sword.

 _'Little Bunny!?'_  I hope he trips. Meine huffed in annoyance. An image of her sitting on her throne as a stuffed bunny with a crown popped up in her mind.  _I am a fearsome, regal Crown Princess!_  She thought, trying to re-establish her image in her own mind.

The door opened slowly and a man and a girl wearing a school uniform entered with a large gray dog beside her. "Excuse me?" she called in a loud voice and the two of them entered the house. "What a pretty house you have, Little Puppy-san!"

Meine couldn't sustain the giggle as she heard Syaoran's alias. The girl noticed her and smiled. "Hello!" she greeted. "My name is Nekoi Yuzuriha, and this dog's name is Inuki!" she gently rubbed the ear of the gray dog. "My partner's name is Shiyu Kusanagi." She pointed at the tall man with the square-shaped jaw.

"Nice to meet you…" Meine said and stood up from her seat. "My name is Me—… Usagi…"

She stood there watching Sakura, Syaoran, Yuzuriha, and Kusanagi talk with each other and Kurogane running after Fai who was flitting around the room. She caught Mokona with both her hands when it bounced its way towards her.

 _Princess Meine._  A voice called. Meine looked around for the source of the voice but found no one else but her companions and their new friends.

"Meine!" Mokona said as she bounced off her hands and unto her shoulder. "You seem awfully quiet. What's wrong?"

She cupped the creature to her face to feel the warmth of its furry body. "Something just feels weird… It's like something bad is going to happen…" she whispered to the creature.

Mokona looked up at her. "It's okay, Meine! Everyone's here! I'm sure nothing bad will happen" it said, trying to make her feel better.

Meine looked at the adorable little creature and nodded.

"Something smells delicious." Kusanagi said with a smile.

Fai leaned back to evade the swing of Kurogane's sharp blade. "It's a chocolate cake that we're experimenting with. We open the shop tomorrow, but if you like you could try it now."

"We'd love to!" Yuzuriha and Kusanagi replied with huge smiles and proceeded to sit down on the high chairs beside the wooden counter.

As soon as Meine heard the words "chocolate cake," she turned to Fai, eyes wide and expectant. The mage had stopped running and Kurogane had returned his sword back in its sheath.

Fai instructed Meine and Sakura to help serve the guests for practice. Much to Meine's dismay, she was assigned to prepare and bring the cups of tea together with Sakura. When she noticed that she was shaking trying to balance the tea on the tray , Meine came to her aid and stopped her, taking one from her tray and served it to Kusanagi, leaving the other for her to serve to Yuzuriha.

"Thank you." Kusanagi said when Meine set the cup on the table.

"Please enjoy." she said with a pleasant smile before walking away to sit on the empty seat next to Syaoran who was sitting two seats away from the other two hunters. She couldn't help stealing furtive glances at their plates as she watched Yuzuriha take a bite from the chocolate fondant with cream on the side.

"It's delicious!" Yuzuriha said animatedly.

"I'm glad you liked it. I took Mokona's advice and poured fresh cream." Fai explained with his usual smile as he watched the customers enjoy his cooking.

He noticed Meine eyeing the food and smiled as he leaned on the counter in front of her. "I'll give you a piece later, if you promise to do a good job as a hostess." he whispered to her.

She nodded happily.

It turned out that Kusanagi and Yuzuriha were Oni hunters and they were kind enough to explain the different rankings of the Oni. Meine was too busy folding the other napkins and that was left on one of the round table in the middle of the room and was barely listening to the explanation when she heard Inuki whine and when she felt the familiar shifting when the Oni appeared in front of their house.

"It looks that some Oni has appeared nearby." Yuzuriha said and she and her partner stood up from her seats.

Meine froze. Her thoughts going back to when she was being crushed by an Oni.

"How much?" Kusanagi asked, taking out a cherry blossom shaped badge the size of Meine's palm.

Fai said, smiling as he walked towards Meine. "Consider it as sample. Just please tell everyone about us!" He placed his hands on Meine's shoulders from behind, his gaze still fixed on Kusanagi. She was in such a daze that she did not even notice him.

The man smiled back and nodded. "We'll make sure you get business."

"Thank you, please come again!" Sakura said as they left.

Meine flinched at the sound of the door slamming close. "It's okay." She felt Fai whisper against her ear.  _When did he get behind me?_  "Nothing bad will happen."

"Okay…" Meine's tense shoulders relaxed as she whispered back.

"Meine-chan?" Sakura asked, slightly tilting her head as she watched the two.

"Let's go eat some more cake!" Fai cheered as he let go of Meine. "Come both of you." He called as he made his way back behind the counter.

Fai served both of them the same dessert he had just given the Oni hunters. He watched with a smile as Meine slowly perked up as she ate the cake little by little.

"You're so good at making these." She complimented, a small smile tugging at her lips. "Where did you learn how to make them?"

"I'm glad you like them, princess." Fai leaned on the counter in front of her, leaning his head on his hand. "Baking isn't much different than creating potions. You just have to mix the right ingredients together and cook them accordingly. Baking was something that came naturally to me."

"Fai-san's desserts makes everyone feel happy!" Sakura beamed.

"Thank you, Sakura-chan."

…

Meine slept peacefully that night. Watching Syaoran and Kurogane, or the puppy combo as Fai put it, made her feel safe. Her dreams were calm that night as she dreamed that someone was stroking her hair gently.

* * *

Meine woke up earlier the next day just before the sun was rising and she was able to watch the rising of it from the window inside her bedroom. She changed into her server uniform and walked down the stairs to see Fai already behind the counter and preparing something.

"Good morning, Meine-chan." he said with a smile.

"Good morning." she replied. "You're up early."

He didn't reply but smiled at her and continued what he was doing behind the counter. "Can you please check if the boys are awake and you can tell them that they can eat breakfast already?"

Without another word, Meine nodded and went back the stairs. She knocked on Syaoran's door and told him that breakfast is ready. She moved a few feet to knock on Kurogane's door. As her hand was about to touch the door, Kurogane's voice sounded from inside the room.

"Come in." he said.

Meine hesitated a little before opening the door and spotted Kurogane sitting on the bed with his back facing the door and he was already wearing his hakama. His sword was on the bed beside him.

"Sit." he said softly. Meine noticed the gentleness that she had never heard before.

She sat on the bed and she was sitting back to back with the older man. "Is something wrong?"

"How's your body?" he asked. Meine turned her head just enough to see the back of Kurogane's head. She was touched by his concern. Kurogane reminded her a little bit of Akemi.

"It doesn't hurt anymore." She paused, thinking of how to put into words how she felt. "But I'm still… scared." She couldn't find a more appropriate word for how she felt. The witch took the one thing she valued the most that she didn't even know she did. Her confidence is gone now and it is tormenting her every waking moment. It was a very frustrating handicap to have.

Kurogane shifted and let out a suppressed sigh. "I've seen you fight, kid." He crossed his arms in front of his chest. "You of all people should have nothing to be scared about. You fight better than most of the soldiers I've faced on the battlefield."

Meine suddenly got up and stared at the ninja in confusion.  _How does he know?_

Kurogane turned around. Her confusion must've been so obvious because he was able to answer her thoughts. "Back in Clover, we saw you fight. Or rather, we fought you." Meine didn't dare to move nor even change her expression as Kurogane's scrutinizing gaze held her frozen in place.

 _'I fought them?'_  she felt like she was just punched in the gut.  _'Just how much did I show them?'_

"Why are you trying to hide it from us?" his voice was calm and leveled, but his eyes were burning her that she had to stop herself from flinching away.

"I-I'm not…" she stammered. "I'm not trying to hide… anything."

She was surprised when Kurogane suddenly lunged at her. She was able to dodge within a fraction of a second as her instincts kicked in.

"Kurogane-san!" she screamed. Without warning, he swung his unsheathed sword at her. Meine had barely any room to move inside the closed quarters they were in but she was still able to dodge every single blow.

"Stop it!" she called out from the corner of the ceiling where she had just jumped to avoid the swordsman's sharp blade.

"You are too fast for a normal person." He commented, eerily calm. "What are you?"

_I can't tell him but he's too perceptive._

"Spit it out." The ninja impatiently demanded.

"I'm not pretending to be scared all the time, Kurogane-san!" she cried out, deflecting his question completely.

Kurogane didn't move a muscle, his sword was still pointed at her but he seemed to be listening at least.

"Yuuko-san took something from me. It's something that I really need to be able to fight!" she answered. She didn't want to tell him about her ability to regenerate as that would lead to further questions that she wasn't ready to answer yet.

Meine sighed in relief when Kurogane sheathed his sword. "The only thing you need to be able to fight is yourself." He stated, glaring at her. "The witch obviously didn't take away any of your limbs nor your strength and ability to fight. The only thing holding you back is your fear. It will kill you if you do not let go of it."

Although his tone was harsh, Meine sensed that he truly cared. She could sense his frustration with her. She jumped down and stood in front of him with her head down, she felt so small and ashamed. Everything Kurogane had said rang true.

She heard Kurogane sigh before she felt his big warm hand on her head.

"Let's go down."

Though she was initially shocked by what he had just done to her, Kurogane seemed like a big brother to her. He was firm but really kind at the same time. She could not hold any ill will against him because she knew that he was just looking out for her.

Meine nodded and followed Kurogane down the stairs. Syaoran was already there in front of his share waiting patiently for the other two to come down the stairs.

Kurogane was then force fed by Fai because he refused to eat the pastries that he had prepared while the Meine and Mokona were preparing the tea behind the counter. She was very thankful that Kurogane had let the subject go for now.

The puppy combo left right after eating breakfast, leaving the two of them behind to clean up. Meine took the dirty dishes and washed them well with soap while Fai was the one who dried them. They really didn't have a conversation. Fai couldn't bring up the conversation he heard right outside Kurogane's door when he went upstairs to check on what's taking the two so long.

He knew that Meine was hiding something from them but he felt like he shouldn't poke his nose in someone else's business like that, especially when he himself was also hiding something. They all were. And they've gotten pretty good at ignoring it. Still, he wanted to talk to the princess about what happened in Clover as well but he felt that this wasn't the appropriate time for such a talk. His questions could wait.

She then heard the frantic footsteps of Sakura upstairs. She came in through the door on the back and she had a small bump on her head. "Good morning! I'm sorry I overslept."

Fai smiled back and also called Meine towards the counter and he poured three cups of tea for them to drink. "It's alright! We still haven't set the exact time when the shop opens. Besides, you still aren't on 100% yet, Sakura-chan."

Sakura smiled and looked around the room. "Where are Mokona, Syaoran-kun, and Kurogane-san?"

"They went to the city hall a few hours ago." Meine replied, taking a seat beside Sakura.

The blond mage nodded and was preparing something on two trays. "There was another Oni attack last night so they went there to get their reward."

The young princess looked at Fai and Meine with eyes filled with worry. "Last night? Did somebody get hurt again?"

"Syaoran did but he's fine." Meine replied. "It's just a scratch." She assured.

"Does that worry you?" Fai asked.

Sakura nodded. "Syaoran-kun is working very hard to get all of my memories back, and yet I can't do anything… Also sometimes Syaoran-kun looks so very lonely."

Meine was impressed by how much Sakura noticed. Even when she's in a daze most of the time she was still able to notice Syaoran's pain. Fortunately, Fai was there to lighten up the mood. He served Sakura her breakfast and she happily dug in the bagel with bacon, scrambled eggs, and cheese and sipped some of that hot chocolate inside the mug in her tray. Fai gave Meine another cup of hot chocolate as to not leave her out since she had already finished her breakfast earlier on.

As Meine sipped some of that delicious hot chocolate, she remembered a memory from before when she was just a little girl and she would get defeated during combat training. Akemi would always make her hot chocolate to cheer her up. Of course she would be given at least three mugs until she would stop pouting. She longed for another moment with him.

"Meine-chan… Meine-chan?" Fai called, waving a hand on her face to get her attention as she noticed that she was staring at the hot chocolate in her mug. "Is something wrong?"

Meine shook her head and set her mug down. "No, it's nothing."

* * *

Later that night Sakura, Syaoran, and Mokona were left behind to watch over the café as Kurogane, Fai, and Meine went to get more information about the new kind of Oni that has appeared. The bar that they were heading to only opened from 6 in the evening. Meine pretty much begged them to take her along, arguing that she hasn't been able to roam around at all since they arrived. She was overjoyed when both men agreed to let her tag along on their little walk. Fai figured she would be safe enough with both him and Kurogane at her side.

Meine wore regular clothes other than the maid outfit that was given to her. She wore a knee-length purple satin dress with a matching purple ribbon to tie her hair up and a black coat.

"I wonder if we've got customers tonight…" Fai thought out loud. Kurogane was stomping angrily in front of them. "Are you still angry?"

"WHAT DO YOU THINK?"

Meine sighed as she listened to the two men arguing about the names Fai had given them.

"Ah!" Fai exclaimed.

Kurogane immediately turned around only to get his cheek touched by Fai's finger. Kurogane pulled his sword half way out its sheath when Fai once again said "Ah!"

"It's not going to work this time!" he growled.

Meine watched as the darts that flew out of Fai's hand hit three Onis on the head. Even Kurogane was shocked at first.

"This time, it's the real thing." Fai said with a smile as more darts appeared on his hand.

The three of them stood back to back against each other as the Onis once again regenerated and surrounded them. Meine pulled out the dagger that was hooked on her belt.

"Ugh" Meine grunted under her breath as she tried to shake off the fear bubbling up in her stomach. Kurogane's earlier statement replayed in her head.  _The only thing holding you back is your fear. It will kill you if you do not let go of it._

"These Onis are too much of a pain one-on-one, so just come at me all at once!" Kurogane said, pulling out his sword.

The Oni lunged for them and the three of them jumped in different directions. Meine slashed an Oni on the head with her dagger and it disappeared.

"Not bad!" Kurogane grinned as he sliced an Oni in half. Meine took note of his compliment as she kicked the head of an Oni similar to what Syaoran had done before. Now that she has killed her first couple of Onis, she was filled with a boost of confidence.

She skillfully dodged two Onis who tried to slash her at the same time. She jumped up high and landed on top of one, stabbing its head with her dagger then immediately pulling it out and throwing it at the other Oni just right before the first one disappeared. The second Oni disintegrated and the dagger lodged in its forehead started to fall but Meine caught it with ease before it hit the ground.

"I don't have any more weapons!" Fai shared with a smile as he jumped to evade an attack and landed on top of a tall lamppost. The eyes of the Oni behind Fai started to glow.

"Fai watch out!" she shouted and she jumped up to push him away when her right arm got hit by the laser beam that shot out of the Oni's eyes. She was only able to notice that she was missing a part of her right sleeve and that her arm was bleeding when they got down on the ground.

Meine's eyes turned gold and her pupils turned into slits for a brief second as she caught a whiff of her own blood.

"Damn it…" she whispered to herself. "I don't heal fast anymore." The fear came back tenfold as she watch her own blood continue to spill on the ground.

"Meine…" Fai whispered her name and reached for her slowly. He didn't seem to be his usual self until another Oni started to lunge for them, he suddenly carried the injured Meine in his arms and jumped out of the way and let Kurogane take care of the rest. He set Meine on her feet as soon as they were in a safe spot.

"Stay there." he ordered in a tone that she has never heard before from him. He took her dagger from her and went to join Kurogane. Meine was stunned for a moment before she was actually able to move.

In the end, only Fai and Kurogane were left standing and able to fight. The number of Onis surrounding them proved to be too much for only the two of them.

" _Chi-Ryuu-Jin-En-Bu_!  _(Earth Dragon Circular Attack Dance)_ " he said and all the Onis around them disappeared, but sadly his sword also broke into tiny little pieces beyond repair.

"I knew this sword was too cheap for that technique." he said, nonchalantly.

Fai was still different from usual as he reached for Meine.

"Why?!" he exclaimed. His blue eyes were filled with worry as he looked at her bleeding arm.

Meine shrugged weakly. "My body just moved on its own…"

She saw the hurt that flashed in his sapphire eyes. "I'm the one who's supposed to protect you."

"I wouldn't be able to stand it if you got hurt…" She replied sincerely.

Fai balled his hands into fists beside him. "How do you think it makes me feel seeing you hurt like this!?" he spat out.

Meine took a step back, startled by Fai's sudden outburst. The look on his face was like a punch to her gut. She has never seen such an expression directed towards her.

"I'm alright, Fai. I won't die from such a small injury…" Meine tried to reassure him.

Kurogane, the person who they seem to have forgotten grumbled and threw what's left of his sword at the ground. He took the sheath out of his belt. "It's not that you 'won't' die. It's that you 'can't' die… Am I right?" He used the sheath of his sword to hit her arm and pushed against it, making her wince in pain.

"Kurogane." Fai growled as warning.

"You only fight when you're cornered even though you are very capable of exterminating your enemies swiftly. When you do fight, you don't give it your all." Kurogane pointed out. "If I seriously tried to kill you right now, I will be able to because you are too scared even though you are powerful enough to go toe to toe with me." He pressed on her wound harder, causing her to yelp. "Stop being a burden and use your true strength to fight so that you won't get hurt like this."

Fai swatted the sheathe out of Kurogane's hand. Meine sighed in relief as the pressure was finally released. "That's enough." He stated, standing in between them. He stared icily at Kurogane.

"If there is something that I am protecting and anybody tries to take it, I'll kill them without a second thought." Fai threatened.

The ninja stood his ground, his gaze fixated on Fai. They both looked ready to fight.

The princess grabbed the mage's arm. "Please don't fight. He didn't mean any harm, Fai." She pleaded. She called out to Kurogane. "I get it, Kurogane-san. I'll stop being a burden to everyone so please both of you calm down!"

"Hey, hey!" called a voice. Meine averted her eyes from Kurogane and looked at a woman with dark skin and light hair standing right outside the bar they were supposed to go to. "No private fights close to our doors." She tutted. "If you're going to come inside, come. If not then scram."

Meine pinched the bridge of her nose to calm herself down. Her bleeding arm was pulsing in hot flashes of pain which was something she has never experienced before. Fai stood unmoving in front of Meine.

She heard Kurogane sigh as the tension was dispelled. Both men appear to have finally calmed down. She stood watching as Kurogane made a move to follow the girl inside.

"Oi, let's go!" he grunted at her before entering the bar.

Meine waited for her heart to slow before taking out the handkerchief she brought and tied it around her wound as a first aid to stop it from bleeding too much before she entered the bar.

"No not like that." Fai said, his lips were curved into a frown as he watched her. "You'll make it worse if you tie it that way." He removed the handkerchief and folded it a couple of times before tying it around her arm much tighter than she had. "We need to get this cleaned up and bandaged as soon as possible." His tone was serious.

"I'm okay for now." Meine fidgeted as she spoke. "You're mad at me…"

"I'm mad at myself for not being able to keep you from harm." His expression looked pained. Meine's heart clenched. She's heard this from Akemi before after a very bad incident. Back then she also couldn't find any words to say, so she decided to do the same.

"Hey, can you bend down for me? I want to tell you a secret." She said softly, slyly using her allure to convince him.

Fai raised a brow at her sudden change of tone. He decided to comply wordlessly after seeing the tender look in her eyes. His eyes widened when he felt her warm lips on his cheek. "Wha—"

"Thank you for caring about me, my prince" She whispered warmly against his ear, sending chills all over his body.

Fai slowly stood straight. He looked at Meine who had both her hands covering her mouth, her face utterly red. His heart felt like it was going to burst out of his chest as he was overwhelmed by her adorableness. A genuine smile crossed his lips. "You're completely red." He teased.

"You're the one to talk!" she blustered "Your face is red too!"

His hand went straight to his cheek as if to check if she was telling the truth. All of a sudden he felt a burst of laughter coming from inside him. He tried to hold it back from coming out but failed. Fai started earnestly laughing. "You really are something else, Princess Meine."

Meine tried to hide her embarrassment behind a pretend cough. "I'm going in!" she said, suddenly feeling very conscious.  _'What on earth was I thinking?! I just kissed Fai!'_  She went ahead and entered the bar without waiting for the mage.

She sat on the chair right next to Kurogane who was already relaxed with a drink in his hand. "Took you long enough." He glanced at her and saw that her face was completely crimson.

Fai was a few steps behind her and he settled on the available seat next to her. Kurogane took note of how gleeful the mage was and compared it to how flustered the raven haired princess was. From that he was able to make a somewhat accurate assumption of what happened between them outside.

The bar named "Clover" was crowded inside and there was a beautiful lady on top of the stage in front of everyone with a microphone in her hands.

The bartender named Caldina offered Meine a drink that originated from the bar called "Four Leaf." It had a beautiful shade of green with a four leaf clover floating on top of it for garnish.

"Is it okay to let a kid drink that?" Kurogane asked, sipping his own drink.

Meine couldn't help but smile. "How old do you think I am?" she asked.

Before Kurogane could even say a retort, a spotlight was pointed at the woman at the stage and music started playing.

"If you want to talk to the person who has met the new type of Oni, you'll have to wait a bit until this song is over." Caldina said.

The woman began singing and her voice was so beautiful that it sent tingles down Meine's spine.

_"Take me away across time to the town of wind_  
_Grant the dream of my white flower_

_Take me by the hand with your gentle fingers, I want you to guide me_  
_To a far-off place, to be by your side._

The lyrics of the song tugged her heartstrings. There was something about it that resonated deeply with her. Meine couldn't shake off the feeling that there was something that she needs to do and it has something to do with what this song was about.

"What a pretty song." Fai complimented as he watched the performance.

"If she wants to go somewhere, she should just go. She shouldn't ask someone else to take her away." Kurogane responded. Meine shifted her attention to him, and Fai also did as well.

"I'm sure that's what you'd do." the mage said. He turned away from him and continued to watch the performance. "But, as for me, I was always waiting for someone to take me away."

 _'Huh?...'_  Meine stared at him. She felt as though she was so close to remembering something important. Something about a promise made centuries ago, a promise that ate at her heart. How could it have anything to do with Fai when they have never even met before coming to Yuuko's shop?

_On this afternoon, though their voices could not sing clearly,_  
_Two lovers awaken to become one,_  
_For the first time, they'll learn the meaning of happiness._  
_Take me away…_

So close… She is so close to remembering. It felt like this song was meant for her. Why was she so strongly longing for someone right now? Her hand trembled. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on that feeling, hoping that it will help her remember and figure out where this sadness was coming from.

Then it finally came. Another hazy memory flashed in her mind.

_"...is…. grown up…. beautiful." A tall faceless figure in front of her said._

_Meine couldn't make out most of the words in the memory as it mostly came out as a buzz._

_She reached out her hand in the memory and caressed the face of the person. "...also…. very…." she giggled. "Soon….touch…." more buzzed words that she couldn't make out were said by her. "...finally be together…..promise."_

_The person bent down and brought their face closer to hers as though they were coming in for a kiss._

She tried harder to make out the person in front of her. She had to remember who it was because that person was someone very important to her. Her heart raced when she saw a glimpse of blue. She was almost there.

Her concentration was completely broken when Fai called out her name. Her heart fell to her stomach as the memory slipped away.

"Are you in pain?" he asked, his voice filled with worry. His gaze moved back and forth from her face to her wound.

She shook her head. "It doesn't hurt as much anymore, don't worry." she smiled ruefully at him. "This song just makes me a little sad."

_With a painful, echoing voice,_  
_They sing out with all of their hearts,_  
_Without knowing the meaning of happiness, sleeping in darkness,_

Fai watched the princess, feeling every bit as sad as her. This song was something that truly spoke to him and it made him remember his past. The main difference about them was that he could hide his emotions very well.

_Take me to a dream I've never seen before, far away._  
_We'll go together... to the town of wind."_

' _A dream I've never seen before…' Does it have something to do with Fai?_  She thought.

* * *

When the song ended, Kurogane leaned against the counter. "It's over. Can we talk about the Oni now?

Caldina prepared another four leaf cocktail and set it on the table beside Fai. "That's what they want to hear, Oruha-san."

The beautiful woman who was singing onstage smiled at them.

"Your song was beautiful." Fai said with a smile as she came over. "Is this where you always sing?"

Oruha nodded and smiled back at Fai. "Yes, it's my bar. If you buy me a drink, I'll give you the information that you need."

Meine sat there, tuning in and out at the conversation happening beside her as she stared distractedly at her drink. As she was partly listening, she heard something that piqued her interest.

"That Oni takes the shape of a human. That shape of a beautiful young man." she said. "That's all I know."

Fai nodded. "Thank you very much, Oruha-san."

The woman left after explaining and Fai waved goodbye as she left. He turned around to look at his other companions to see that Kurogane was already having shots. Before Meine could even drink her shot, Fai put a hand on Meine's shoulder to stop her.

"Meine-chan, I don't think it's a good idea for you to drink that." he said.

"You're so overprotective. That's why she's too spoiled." Kurogane commented.

Meine sighed loudly and waited for another argument to erupt between her two companions.

Caldina approached them. "If you want to drink more at home, I can recommend some for you if you want and you can get some here."

"We'll take it!" Fai said with a huge grin.

* * *

The three of them arrived in front of the café with Meine being carried by Kurogane. During their walk back to the café, Meine started staggering. Kurogane decided to pick her up so she didn't have to walk anymore. Fai chuckled at him before giving a sly remark "Who's the one being overprotective now?"

Kurogane grunted in response. "Shut up you stupid mage."

Meine was grinning during their entire walk back. She was glad that the two had finally made up.

...

Outside the café, the three of them that were left behind and four customers stood. It seems that they have just defeated an Oni that had attack the café again. Kusanagi and Yuzuriha were true to their word and brought two new customers with them.

"We're home!" Fai chimed when they entered through the wooden gate.

Sakura, Syaoran, and Mokona gasped at the sight of Meine who was injured and was partly covered in blood.

"We ran into some trouble on the way to the bar." Meine explained.

All of a sudden, Kurogane froze in his tracks as he spotted one of the customers who had short, asymmetrical, black hair.

"Souma…" he called. The woman turned around at the sound of her name being called. She looked at Kurogane with confused eyes. Kurogane gently handed over Meine to Fai and hurried to get to Souma.

"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be guarding Princess Tomoyo!" Kurogane exclaimed.

Souma raised her hand and shook her head to stop Kurogane. "Excuse me, my name is Souma, but I am afraid that this is the first time that you and I have met."

Kurogane was stunned and was probably also embarrassed. He just stood there staring at Souma for quite some time with his mouth slightly open until they left the shop.

Fai set her down on a chair as Sakura and Syaoran followed them both. He stood there watching as Sakura took off Meine's coat for her, gasping and stepping away at the sight of the bloody handkerchief that wrapped the wound. Syaoran also gasped and immediately let her take off her ruined jacket and let it fall to the floor.

He cleaned Meine's arm and wiped away all the blood before applying ointment for it to heal faster. Meine winced a bit.

"You're quite skilled at this, Syaoran-kun" she praised, her eyebrows creased despite the smile she had on.

"My father taught me how to dress a wound since a lot of people usually get hurt during archaeological explorations." Syaoran replied, smiling at the memory of his father.

"There" he whispered as he finished dressing her wound.

"Thank you."

"So there's a Souma-san in Kurogane-san's country who looks a lot like her, huh?" Sakura said as she delivered tea to the men and Meine.

"You were so surprised!" Mokona exclaimed.

Syaoran finished tying up the bandage on her arm.

"I guess it's true that a variety of worlds exist." Fai began. "Just like what Yuuko-san said, they're the same and yet not the same. If it's true then we might meet more in the future. More people who exist in our original worlds…"

Meine once again thought about Akemi. Someone who actually looked like him but wasn't him at the same time. Someone who wasn't a vampire like her.

"I brought back presents!" the mage chimed, walking to the couch where he had set down the bag and opened it to reveal the four bottles of alcohol that he bought.

* * *

Half an hour later, Fai, Mokona, and Sakura were giggling and meowing like idiots that Kurogane, who was still sober, was starting to get pissed. They all had glasses filled with alcohol and they were now drunk, well at least the kitty combo are.

Meine sighed as she looked out of the window. For some reason she was craving for wine, the one her kingdom proudly produced from their very own vineyards.

"If you get drunk so easily, don't bring home liquor even if somebody did recommend it!" Kurogane said to the two noisy drunkards. Their meowing and giggling was getting on his nerves. But the brunette princess and the mage were obviously not listening.

Meine sighed again as she sat on the couch beside Fai who kept on cuddling with her. When he started pouting and moving towards her face, she immediately stood up and flicked his forehead away. "You reek of alcohol."

She headed to the counter where it was more peaceful.

Things started to get weird from then on. Mokona was twirling around the room. Fai and Sakura were meowing even louder and started making cat ears using their handkerchiefs; and Syaoran started swinging a ladle like a sword asking Kurogane if this was how it was done.

Kurogane looked around the room and spotted Meine by the counter who was also looking at the drunken mess in front of them.

"Are you drunk too?" he grunted and set his glass on a table.

"Not really." Meine replied with a shrug. "I don't like the taste of what they're drinking."

The dark ninja already had veins popping out on his forehead and he was about to lose his temper.

"GO TO BED! ALL OF YOU! NOW!" he ordered in a loud voice. The people in the room fell silent and just stared at Kurogane before making more noise again.

"I think we're going to have to force them to bed." Meine commented. "Good luck Kuro-daddy!" she laughed.

The ninja gave her an irritated stare. "I swear to god you are turning into the mage! I don't need two of him!"

Meine stuck her tongue out at him before sauntering towards Sakura.  _A little payback for calling me little bunny._

Meine helped get the four, including Mokona, back to their respective rooms and offered to lock up the café downstairs. Kurogane refused, saying that she was injured and ordered her up to her room, the vampire princess did as what Kurogane told her to do since she's also feeling tired from what had happened earlier.

"Big puppy is so nice." She said softly as she went upstairs, knowing full well that the ninja could hear her.

"Go to bed, bratty bunny." She heard him reply as she reached the top of the stairs. A playful grin crossed her lips.

* * *

Meine, Fai, and Sakura were left behind to run the café as Kurogane and Syaoran headed out for some sword training. Meine just watched Sakura as she kneaded the dough of the scones that Fai taught her how to make while Fai entertained the men who came to deliver some furniture to the store.

When the men left, Fai went over to the piano that they placed in the middle of the café.

"What's that, Fai-san?" Sakura inquired, looking up from what she was doing. She's never seen such an instrument before.

"It's a piano!" he answered, brushing the top of it with his fingertips. "I saw it at a shop and I thought it would be a good decoration for our café. It really helps set the mood doesn't it?"

"Do you know how to play it, Fai?" Mokona asked excitedly.

Meine's heart started to beat in anticipation. Back in her world, they had a piano. It was her favorite instrument as it produced the most beautiful melodies. Fai looked good with it. She waited with bated breath for a magical tune to play as the mage readied his fingers over the keys.

They were all disappointed when Fai just started pressing random notes one at a time.

"Do you not know how to play it?" Meine pouted, disappointment heavy in her chest. She really wanted to hear Fai play it beautifully.

The blond laughed and told them he had no idea how to play it. "Can you play it, Meine-chan?" he asked, smiling.

"It's been a while, but yes I can." She responded, as she walked over to the piano. "We have a piano in our world too. I used to take lessons as a child." Her eyes softened as she recalled the fond memories of her happily playing a song for her family.

"Why don't you play for us then?" the mage stood up from the seat and offered Meine to sit.

"It might not be good though. I haven't played in a while." She explained as she took a seat on the piano chair.

"I'm sure it will be wonderful!" Fai encouraged as he stood beside the piano facing her.

Meine nodded. She smiled fondly as she ran her fingers across the cold and smooth keys. She closed her eyes and played her favorite song, the one that she lovingly wrote for someone she longed for.

Everyone in the room remained completely still as the breathtaking melancholy music played. A slow and clear melody which invoked a sense of deep longing captured their hearts as they listened. The notes began as soft and gentle, then it slowly rose as though it was yearning for someone and they could not contain it anymore. It would go down again to a mellow tune that gave a sense of warmth, a promise that someday they would be together. It was sad yet hopeful at the same time.

Her audience remained mesmerized as she gracefully played. Fai's mouth hung open just ever so slightly as the music took his breath away. He has never heard such an enchanting melody.

 _'So this is what the word beautiful mean.'_  He thought as he watched her.

Meine focused on the message of her song as she played.

_I want to be with you_

_Wherever you are_

_When you feel too lonely_

_Please think of me_

_I will be with you soon_

_I promise_

_Just hold on and wait for dawn to come_

_We will be together_

_No matter what_

_My beloved_

_I yearn for your touch_

_Your lips, the warmth of your skin_

_I will do whatever it takes to find you_

_Please hold on and wait for me_

_We will be together_

_I promise_

She slowly opened her eyes as soon as she hit the last note. Her heart felt lighter after being able to pour out her emotions. She looked around the room and caught Fai staring at her with tenderness. Then she heard a faint sniffle from Mokona. She looked over to them and saw Sakura in tears.

"That was so beautiful!" Sakura wiped her tears away before applauding.

"Meine is amazing!" Mokona cried out, still feeling really emotional from the song.

Fai remained still as he stared at the piano after Meine headed over to the other princess. "Truly." He added under his breath.

"I have an idea." He said once he was finally able to get a grip of his emotions. "Why don't you play the piano for our customers today, Meine?"

* * *

Meine played the piano for the most part of the day which she thoroughly enjoyed. Today was busy as a steady number of customers poured in the café throughout the day.

As their closing time neared, Fai had approached her and asked if she could take over his duties for a bit as he had to fetch more flour for tomorrow's service.

 _Bye-bye for now._  She bid the piano farewell before heading behind the counter to join Sakura who was cooking up something.

"You're working really hard huh, Sakura-chan." She commented.

Sakura wiped away her bangs that were getting on her face. "When Syaoran-kun gets home, I want to give him some really good food!"

Meine couldn't help but smile at her and Mokona moved to hug the bowl by the sides to hold it steady. "Sakura is so sweet!" she said, giggling. "Syaoran is a very lucky man to have you."

Sakura blushed and stammered as she continued to cook.

Two hours passed and the men still haven't come home yet. Sakura have finished baking and Meine has already finished washing all of the soiled plates and utensils and they both sat on the high stools and watched Mokona fall asleep on a soft clean rag.

The two of them then brought Mokona up to Sakura's room and tucked it under the sheets where it murmured something in its sleep. "Kuro-wanko… Hug me…"

Meine and Sakura looked at each other and giggled.

As soon as Mokona was once again breathing slowly, Sakura and Meine stood up and left the room. "Until Syaoran-kun comes home I've got to work harder!" Sakura whispered to Meine.

"I'm sure he will be very happy." She replied.

They both went down the stairs and Sakura went to the oven to take out her scones while Meine took the liberty of sweeping the floor. Suddenly, she felt the huge wave of power from Sakura's feather and she heard Sakura gasp.

Before she knew it, Sakura was walking outside the door in a daze. Meine walked with her and waved a hand in front of her face. This has happened before, when Sakura would be drawn towards her own feathers in a daze just like what happened in Koryo Country.

"Sakura-chan?" Meine called as she walked backwards a few meters in front of her. Her instincts told her that she should let her go to where her feathers are calling her, but it also told her that it was dangerous for them to be out and about without anyone knowing where they were.

As they passed an intersection, Meine and Sakura passed Nekoi Yuzuriha and her dog Inuki as they were skipping, talking about kinds of cakes that Yuzuriha would like to eat. She noticed the two girls walking and decided to follow them, calling Sakura's alias every now and then asking for her to stop. Unfortunately she was too far behind them for them to hear her calls.

Meine spotted Syaoran and the customer who once went to their shop named Ryouh standing under a tall sakura tree. "Syaoran-kun!" she called.

Syaoran turned around and he saw the princess walking towards him with Meine by her side.

"Princess Sakura!" he said and ran towards her. He placed a hand on Sakura's shoulder to stop her from walking. "What's wrong? What happened?" he looked at Meine searching for an answer then turned back to Sakura. Please snap out of it!"

"I think she's being called by her feather again." she answered.

Sakura's hand slowly raised and pointed at the building of the city hall that could be seen from behind the tree.

"Could it be that your feather is right over there?" he asked.

Before the girl could possibly even answer, her eyes closed and she fainted in Syaoran's arms. Yuzuriha rived after that and Inuki started growling and Ryuoh's sword started shaking.

"There's an Oni here!" Ryuoh said.

Syaoran then left Sakura in Yuzuriha's care and ran after Ryuoh.

"I'll go too!" Meine stated and followed the two to the plaza where there was a huge level  _"Ha"_  Oni in the middle of the street. Two Oni hunters slashed the Oni and it regenerated and only grew bigger.

Meine's eyes landed on the largest Sakura tree where she found a silhouette of a man sitting on one of its branches. Syaoran seemed to have noticed too and stood beside Meine.

The man raised his hand to pull his hood down. As the seconds ticked by, Meine's eyes widened and she felt her blood boiling under her skin as she saw bit by agonizing bit the face of the new breed.

Meine felt her eyes shining gold as her adrenaline started to kick in. She knew the man on top of the tree… He was a friend of hers until he betrayed her. She tried to reason with herself by saying that this was a different person from the one she knew.

"It's been a long time, Syaoran… and Princess Meine." He greeted. She felt her heart drop to her stomach.

'Seishiro…san…" Syaoran whispered.

"Seishiro…" her hand tightened to fists at her sides. She mentally prepared herself for a fight.

"Why is Seishiro-san in this world?" Syaoran asked aloud.

Before the two of them could react, Ryuoh grabbed their hands and ran away from the group of Oni that was closing in on them. "That must be the new type of Oni we heard about!" he shouted as he continued to pull them towards the direction of the café.

* * *

The three of them arrived at the shop in no time, running all the way until they arrived. Fai and Kurogane were already there standing by the doorway and Kusanagi had Sakura in his arms.

"What happened to you guys?" Souma asked as she noticed her panting partner.

"We met the new breed of Oni…" Ryuoh said in between pants.

Meine just stood frozen in place as her mind raced, trying to rationalize how and why her former mentor had showed up in this world. He wasn't just someone with the same face, he knew who she was.

She quickly excused herself and ran back to her room to think. She felt angry and confused, and she felt like she wanted to kill something.

She lay down on her stomach on top of her bed, her face buried in her pillow. She didn't even bother looking up when she heard the door open mainly because she already knew who it was.

"Meine," Fai's voice said as she felt the bed shake as he sat on the edge. "You saw the new type of Oni with Syaoran-kun?"

"Yes." Meine's muffled voice replied.

"He also told us that the Oni looked like the person who taught him how to fight. He said that the person called both your names… Do you know him?"

Meine sat up and her eyebrows furrowed. "Yes. Seishiro was my friend."

"What happened?"

She gripped the sheets under her. "He came to our country as a traveler when I was younger and he was looking for a place to stay. We allowed him to stay in the castle, then in return he taught me how to fight…"

"Then what happened?"

She took a deep breath. "I got attached to him. I was still a child. He managed a way to get in my head and knew how to keep my interest. He stayed long enough with us to become my favorite mentor. I told him everything he asked about."  _He charmed his way into my heart._  She explained, clenching her chest with her hands. "He was interested in a pair of twins. Kamui and Subaru. They were my dear friends."

Fai waited for Meine to continue and watched as she wrapped her knees with her arms.

"I was naïve. He found them thanks to me. That's when he told me that he was a hunter who has been looking for the twins in search for immortality. He used me to get to them." She said the word  _used_  with more disdain than she had intended. To this day, his betrayal still affected her deeply even though it's been decades ago. He was the first man she has ever had feelings for after all.

Fai kept silent as he waited for her to continue.

"He tried to take me by force when the twins ran away. I tried to fight back but I was no match for him. Luckily my father was there at the time… If it weren't for him I would've been taken away by Seishiro. When I came to, they told me that he had escaped using magic."

"I trusted him, I loved him. He was my friend."

Tears started to pool at the corners of Meine's eyes and Fai pulled her to a hug to comfort her. She allowed herself to bury her face on his chest as the memories of that moment filled up her mind once again. That was the first time she's ever felt utter betrayal from someone she cared deeply about.

* * *

A few hours passed and the sun rose. Meine hadn't slept a wink as she slowly changed into the new waitress uniform that Fai had bought for her the other day. It was a girl's hakama, similar to what Kurogane wore but the pants were tied just around her waist line.

She went down the stairs to see Fai serving Kurogane breakfast. The mage smiled at her as she saw her wearing her new uniform. "Good morning, Meine-chan. That hakama that Kurogane bought for you looks good on you."

"T-thank you." she stammered as she went behind the counter to prepare tea for the ninja. "Good morning." She greeted.

Sakura and Syaoran arrived in the main room just after Kurogane had finished his meal. After Syaoran finished eating the breakfast, he and Kurogane left for another day of sword training. The four of them took this as an opportunity to eat their share before opening the café. Fai prepared pancakes for them. He garnished his plate with sliced strawberries and bananas while Meine let her share float in a pool of maple syrup, sweet fruits and shredded bits of chocolate. She couldn't help but smile and close her eyes after each bite as warmth and sweetness covered her mouth every time. Fai watched her with glee, delighted that she's enjoying his food very much.

A few hours went by and the last of the morning customers left as they closed for lunch time. Meine cleared the tables and cleaned the area while Sakura washed the dishes and Mokona dried it. Fai was there as always, baking more pastries that made Meine's mouth water.

She placed another stack of dirty dishes on the counter near the sink where Sakura was. "Sakura-chan's working hard." she commented.

"You don't have to hurry." Fai said as he watched Sakura scrub the plates with much vigor.

Sakura shook her head. "It's okay. I'm almost finished anyway. I can hardly do anything for any of my traveling companions. So if I can do something, I'll do it! Someday if only just a little… I'd like to bear my share of everyone's burden and pain…"

She was halfway falling down to the floor when she said the last word of her sentence. Fai caught her easily with one arm and supported her back as he slowly lowered her onto the floor.

"You really are a good kid, Sakura-chan…" he whispered softly.

"I'll go get a blanket and a pillow." Meine said as she excused herself to the bedroom for a quick moment. When she returned, Fai had carried Sakura to the couch where she first slept when they arrived to this world. He inserted the pillow under her head and pulled the blanket up until her shoulders.

"How is she?" Meine asked.

"She's just fast asleep. She's been going full out recently, only sleeping at night." he said with a smile. For a moment he stared into her eyes that made Meine uneasy.

"What is it?"

"You didn't sleep last night, haven't you?" It was more of a statement than a question.

"Not really."

He smiled gently and sat on the ground. "Why don't you lie down for a moment and rest your eyes?" He looked at her encouragingly and patted his shoulders. She slowly sat on the ground beside him and leaned against him, using his shoulder as a pillow.

He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her against his chest so that she would be more comfortable. Instead of pushing him away, Meine breathed in his scent as her eyes closed and her breathing slowed. Being in his arms made her feel safe and relaxed.

She was still half asleep when she heard Mokona's soft serious voice speak. She heard them, but she was so sleepy that she could only understand a little bit of what they're saying.

"Fai?" Mokona started.

Fai whispered his reply to Mokona to not wake the sleeping girl in his arms. "What is it?"

"Fai said before in another world that if Syaoran laughs or has fun, nobody will blame him for it."

"Yeah… What about it?"

"It's true even for Fai, too. Nobody will blame Fai. Not Syaoran, not Sakura, not Meine or Kurogane. Nobody."

He smiled and took Mokona in one hand. "Me? I always have fun!"

"Fai thinks of other things even while laughing."

Meine felt Fai freeze against her and his hold on her shoulder tightened ever so slightly. "Mokona, you really are amazing."

Meine felt Mokona's furry body against her cheek as Fai placed it on her shoulder. "It's one of Mokona's secret techniques: knowing when someone is sad. Fai, Meine, Kurogane, and Syaoran are all somehow sad… but as everybody travels together, the sad parts get a little smaller. It'd be nice if the warm feeling that Sakura always has spread out to everybody else a little bit more. That's what Mokona thinks."

She felt Mokona leave from her shoulder as Fai took the little creature somewhere. "Yeah… That'd be nice."

Meine's eyes shot open in alarm as she felt a familiar powerful aura by the door. Fai noticed him too and he ordered Mokona to stay by Sakura's side. Meine jumped up to her feet right before the door opened.

"Seishiro…" she growled, her heart pounding hard against her chest.  _How did he find me?_

"Hello, Princess Meine." he said with a smile. "Have you been keeping well?"

"Why are you here?" she asked venomously.

"I came to see you, of course." Seishiro replied. "Since you're here, that could very well mean that Subaru is also here with you."

"They're not with me! And even if they were I would never let you anywhere near them." She spat, spite dripping from every word.

"Ah, that's too bad then." He calmly smiled at her. "Since we're are both here, why don't I start with you then? I won't let you get away this time."

"Meine get behind me." Fai commanded, stepping in front of her as a human shield.

Suddenly several Onis materialized inside the café, surrounding them. They all attacked at the same time and Meine had no choice but to use her dagger and fight back. She swiftly killed 3 Onis at once as she moved with her true speed. She fought alongside with Fai as another wave of enemies appeared. Meine was determined not to get hurt this time and she swore to not let Fai get hurt.

She was distracted by two particularly strong Onis when Seishiro lunged at her. She didn't have enough time to react by the time she noticed him.

Fai came out of nowhere, stepping in front of her just in time to catch the blade that was meant for her. Some of his blood splattered on her cheeks.

She was unable to scream as she was overcome with shock at the sight of a bloody blade piercing through Fai's chest. She stood, eyes wide with absolute horror as the Onis surrounding them turned into a black substance and started swallowing the mage's body.

The sight of Akemi and Fai both stabbed in similar fashion flashed in her mind side by side until the images became intangible. She began to scream, her eyes glowing silver.

Seishiro was taken aback by the state of her. She looked absolutely feral, and along with it came a sudden burst of magical power.

She came at him without warning. He smiled as she neared him. "I'm sorry, princess. It seems like you cared for that man deeply."

His statement was ignored by the vampire princess. Seishiro almost got cut in half by a wind attack Meine threw at his direction, it was only a diversion however as her real attack was with her dagger. It was exactly what he taught her to do back when she was younger. Unfortunately for her, Seishiro knew everything there is to know about her fighting style.

He casted a powerful spell which bound the weeping princess. She fell to the floor with a hard thud and tried her hardest to break free of his spell but it was to no avail as her current emotional state made her magic go awry. She was a complete wreck. Nothing mattered anymore.

Seishiro picked her up by the neck and squeezed, dangling her in the air like a doll.

"Farewell, Meine." he said as he tightened his grip even more.

Meine looked over at where Fai's body was before it vanished. Her hand tried to reach out for him.

"Fa…i." she whimpered as she started to disappear.

The last thing Meine saw before she disappeared was Mokona crying.

* * *

Meine opened her eyes when she heard an incessant beeping. She found herself inside an egg-shaped pod with wings and a comfy chair inside.

 _"Guest number Delta 435702 is now dead. Player is now been extracted from the country of Outo."_  A voice spoke from inside her pod. The latch opened slowly, allowing Meine to see her surrounding more clearly. She looked around and found more egg-shaped pods similar to hers. She found her other four companions also inside their own pods and were still asleep. One pod was empty.

"What the hell is going on?" she asked aloud, still too disorientated to get out of her pod.

Then she felt a sharp pain in her head. Memories of when they were dropped by Mokona to this world flooded her mind.

_Mokona opened its mouth and they were once again dropped a little bit too harshly inside a glass pod. It was one egg shaped-pod per person._

_"Are you not capable of spitting us out properly for once!?" Kurogane growled at the creature that landed on a separate pod._

_"Welcome to Fairy Park!" six women said in unison as they moved towards each one of them in floating stands and held a rectangular screen._

_Meine panicked and started stammering when a woman approached her. "Are you here for the dream capsules?"_

_She could hear Syaoran replying to the woman asking her but they didn't listen to them and asked several other questions._

_"Is this your first time?"_

_"Y-yes?" Meine replied, baffled at what was going on._

_"Then we'll use the introductory settings then." a woman replied and started pressing buttons on the rectangular screen._

_The egg capsule closed on top of Meine as she knocked on it with her hands._

_"Now everyone, we wish you enjoy the very best of 'dreams'."_

_Before Meine could even answer to what those women were saying, her eyes were slowly forced shut and the vision of her five companions inside egg capsules blurred._

"Why do I remember it just now?" She mumbled to herself.

"Meine." Someone called out from below. She gasped and forced herself to stand to look over her pod and saw the mage standing right below it.

"Fai!" She cried out as she hurriedly jumped out of her pod, reaching out both her arms to him. He caught her with ease and set her down gently so she could stand on the floor.

She cried against his chest as he breathed in the scent of her hair.

"I thought you were dead!" she sobbed in relief. Her world was shattered for a few agonizing minutes but now it was whole again. She wanted nothing else but to stay in arms forever.  _'He's alright. He's alive.'_  Her mind rejoiced as she continued to cry.

"Shh… I'm here now. Everything's alright." He soothed, gently stroking her hair. "I'm so sorry to have made you sad, princess." His feeling of guilt was overshadowed by a sense of happiness.

Her hysteria quickly subsided as Fai held her tightly in his arms. Once she had calmed down, Fai gently moved her back to see her face. Meine savored the feeling of Fai's finger running across her cheek to wipe away her tears.

He gingerly caressed her cheek with his hand and felt warm happiness swell up in his chest as Meine leaned against his touch, putting her hand over his. Her eyes were still red from crying; her tears spilt all for him and only him. She has never looked more beautiful in his eyes. He has never had anything of his own that he could freely claim as truly his, the tears she had shed for him were like treasure. No amount of guilt can ruin the twisted joy he got from it.

Fai bent down and tenderly kissed her cheek, then the corner of her eye where her tears were just flowing, and then finally he moved to kiss her forehead.

Meine's heart raced as she closed her eyes. She couldn't fully comprehend what she was feeling as he kissed her; all that was clear to her was that she wanted more. His lips lingered on her forehead before he whispered "Thank you for caring about me, my princess." He smiled as he returned her previous words to her.

A woman with long dark hair suddenly appeared from the shadows. "I'm so sorry to interrupt. I will explain everything to you. My name is Chitose."

* * *

When Meine and Fai found out that Syaoran and Sakura had already  _"died"_ , they both decided to be the one to explain the confusing situation that they were now in.

The two of them brought Syaoran and Sakura outside of the room full of capsules and brought them outside where the real country where Outo is, the country of Edonis.

Chitose once again appeared to them and introduced herself to the other two.

"I am informed that you know the person who is interfering with our dream capsule system." Chitose said to Syaoran as they brought to a dark room with computer screens lining the walls. "I would ask that you tell me more about this person."

"Why do you want to know?" he asked.

"This can't continue any longer… Our game has stopped being a game!"

"What does that mean exactly?"

Chitose paused and her eyebrows met in the middle. "The game must be completely safe. No matter what the dangers are in the virtual world, they aren't real. Once you are out of the world, it's as if you dreamed the whole thing… but since this person entered, the Oni that should be under control by the Fairy Park's systems are being manipulated by some outside force."

"If this keeps up, the dream will…"

The ground suddenly shook and all the monitors inside the room switched to where the rumbling came from. On the screen was a video footage of what was happening just outside. In the Edonis Country's Fairy park, everyone was running away from the numerous Oni that had materialized right there where the rides stood.

"It looks like the dream has turned into reality." Chitose said. She approached the largest screen in front of her. "Edonis Country has no system that could allow images from the dream capsules to appear in the real world! What method could the saboteur be using to make them real?"

The floor started to shake even more and small debris from the ceiling started falling down.

"If we don't find a way to counter it, the Oni will spread throughout the country!"

Syaoran started running for the direction of the door. Sakura placed a hand on his arm and tried to stop him but to no avail. "We have to find Kurogane-san!"

Meine just happened to glance on one particular screen and she spotted Kurogane on top of a fallen gondola of the Ferris wheel. Seishiro was also there on top of the head of an Oni.

She didn't say anymore and ran out towards the main part of the park where Kurogane was about to fight with Seishiro. She chose a different path so that she wouldn't pass by Yuzuriha and the other Oni hunters.

She jumped from one fallen debris to another until she was near enough to watch the fight where she wouldn't be seen. She truly hoped that Kurogane could defeat him.

Kurogane had just charged for Seishiro, which he evaded but not by quite enough. His coat was cut in half by just one swing of the ninja's sword.

Her eyes grew wide open as she watched Seishiro get his glasses from his front pocket and put it on. Whenever the man wore his glasses, it usually means that he was very serious about what he's going to do.

Meine did not want to take any chances. She quickly looked for the highest peak inside the park to position for attack just in case to help Kurogane. It may take a huge toll on her body but she didn't mind. She refused to allow Seishiro to hurt anyone else that she cared for again.

She rushed to the tallest peak of the park was the fallen tracks of one particular ride and she easily jumped up on ledges to reach it. She had to keep down so that she wouldn't be seen and she just stood there on one of the lower beams.

Just as the two men were about to lay down their powerful blows on each other, a long stick with a piece of paper attached to it came out from Mokona's mouth and landed on the ground between them.

"What the hell?" Kurogane asked loudly. He turned to the direction to where the stick came from and he spotted Fai, Sakura, and Syaoran on the ground. "It's you guys!"

Meine didn't expect that she would still be able to hear what they were saying because they had quite a distance between them.

As she was watching, she swore that she met Seishiro's eyes for a second and he actually smiled at her before he looked over at Syaoran. "It looks like you've made it back safely."

All of a sudden, light came out of Seishiro's chest and Sakura's feather appeared. Meine flinched as she once again felt that strong wave of energy.

"How did you get it, Seishiro-san?" Syaoran demanded.

Seishiro smiled and held the feather with both hands. "I cannot control the feather any longer. We'll have to finish our match later."

The city hall from Outo appeared out of the blue and landed near them. Seishiro used the feather's power to break the piece of the bridge that they were standing on and brought it up to the air.

"That's it!" Chitose said. "That thing in his hand is the incredibly powerful source of energy! That's the cause why Outo, the world of the game was able to come in reality!"

Meine continued to watch in confusion. She watched as Syaoran climbed up to the roof of the city hall so that he would be standing higher than Seishiro.

Strong gusts of winds surrounding the man prevented Syaoran from even having a chance of going near him. "Seishiro-san!" he called out.

As the winds got stronger, Meine saw a silhouette of a tall dark creature appear in front of Seishiro. Her eyes closed slightly as a strong gust brought dust to her eyes. By the time she was able to rub the dust away she saw a huge Oni, the biggest she's ever seen.

"The I-1 Oni has appeared." Seishiro said.

As soon as the dust and the wind cleared up, Meine saw a person standing on the hand of the Oni. It was a woman, a very beautiful woman with long curly hair and a clover tattoo on her chest.

"Oruha-san?" she asked.

"I never imagined that I'd be called back to duty this way." She said as she held onto one of the claws of the huge Oni.

Seishiro just smiled. "Sorry."

"But there's no help for it. When such promising Oni hunters requested for information, I decided to use you to deflect their attention."

"So the things you told as at the bar…" Fai began.

"…Those were lies?" Kurogane finished.

"Not all of it. I, in fact, have met a beautiful young man who can control Oni. It's simply that the young man isn't an Oni himself."

She turned to face Seishiro. "So… What business does the saboteur have with me?"

Seishiro nodded. "The country of Outo is virtual reality, which means that in the real world the shape you have now may not be what you really look like."

"That's true."

"Is your real form the shape that you have now?"

"No."

Seishiro didn't have a smile on his face. "I've heard that you can give eternal life."

"Yes."

"Shall we dispense with the roundabout questions?"

He paused for a moment. "Your true name… is it  _Subaru_?"

Meine flinched at the sound of the name. She already knew what Oruha's answer would be.

"No." she said.

"Do you have any knowledge about a pair of vampire twins?"

"No, I don't. I am one of the people who made the system that runs Fairy Park. When we say eternal life, we mean that once you have defeated me, the strongest Oni, then there is no enemy you can't defeat. In other words, we as the creators convey the special privilege of making it impossible to die in the game no matter what happens. That's what it means. It has nothing to do with vampires."

Meine laughed a little, making everyone below them turned to look at her standing way up high. "Seishiro, didn't I tell you earlier that they weren't here?"

Seishiro just smiled at her comment. "I suppose you are right, Meine. So this isn't the place either. The reason this world of the game came out into reality is because of this."—he motioned to the feather at hand. "I cannot control it, but once that it vanishes from this world, so will its effects."

"No! Please wait!" Syaoran shouted.

Seishiro turned around to face Syaoran.

"I'm traveling across different dimensions in search of that feather." He exclaimed, trying to reason with him.

"It isn't yours, Syaoran."

"It's a crucial part of the most important person to me!"

Seishiro just continued to smile there. "I'm afraid that I can't return it. Will you fight me?"

Syaoran seemed to be looking for words before he answered. "You're the one who first taught me how to fight. I cannot defeat you as I am now. But I will get that feather! I've decided on that."

He started to untie the string that Kurogane had tied around his sword.

"I don't have the skills, and I know I can't use this sword as I should… but if I don't draw it, even my one-in-a-million chance turns to no chance at all!"

When Syaoran took out the sword, the blade was covered in flames.

"My chances may be near zero, but I'll take that chance!"

Syaoran jumped off the ledge and aimed right for Seishiro with his blade held with both hands and pointed straight at him.

He just stood there with a smile on his face as he was seemingly engulfed by flames but it just surrounded him like a tornado of fire before it disappeared.

"A sword of fire… it suits you Syaoran." He said with a smile. He simply swiped his hand and a strong gust of wind knocked Syaoran away like he was a mere leaf.

Meine shivered when Seishiro's gaze landed right on her. She was suddenly pulled by an unknown force towards him.

"Hello again, Princess Meine." He smiled ominously as she landed on her knees right in front of him. He bent down to her level. "I just want to test something so can you please stay still for me?"

Meine felt something cold go through her stomach as soon as Seishiro finished speaking. It took her a few seconds to comprehend what just happened. The odd sensation was then immediately followed by a sharp excruciating pain. She coughed up a lot of blood as Seishiro's sword pierced through her stomach.

_Am I going to die like this?_

"Meine-san!" Syaoran yelled, his eyes wide in shock.

Fai turned away from the Oni he was facing. He felt coldness wash over him when he saw a sword sticking out of Meine's back. Her blood was pooling on the floor. He immediately ran towards her, abandoning the fight he was in with the other Oni hunters.

Seishiro pulled out the sword as he stood back up straight. He watched with a cold calculated expression as the princess covered the gaping wound with her hand, coughing up more blood on the floor. "I see." He murmured. "You gave the witch your ability to regenerate. You are no longer immortal."

Meine's vision was starting to go dark but the pain kept her awake enough to look at her former friend. "Why… are you… doing this?" She struggled to speak, blood dripped out from her mouth.

Before Seishiro could answer, he felt a wave of incredibly powerful magic charging up for an attack likely aimed towards him. He turned his head towards the mage who was absolutely enraged. He flashed him a casual grin before using the feather's power to transport himself and Meine to a different plane where they would not be disturbed by any meddlesome people.

To the rest, Meine and Seishiro had simply vanished without a trace.

* * *

It was dark inside the alternate plane they were in but somehow she could still see him, and also herself as though they were illuminated by something from the inside.

"It seems weird that Prince Akemi isn't here with you." He observed, "Tell me Princess Meine, how is the prince doing?"

Her chest clenched in pain at the thought of him. "He's gone."

"Oh?" he seemed a bit shock. "The Immortal Prince is dead?"

Meine bit her lips to stop herself from coughing out more blood. She took a second to reply. "We are…. not immortal, Seishiro." she grimaced in pain. She tried to put more pressure on her open wound.

"I see that." He stated coldly as he looked in fascination at her surrounded by her own blood. It reminded him of someone from a long time ago. "You're trying to revive him aren't you? I can sense the power of the witch coming from the toy you had with you. I assume it's what you use to travel between worlds." he paused as though he was distracted by a memory. "The dead can never return back to life.

"It's… none of…your business." she gritted out as she glared at him.

"You will find out for yourself just how futile trying to resurrect the dead is. You should give up on your quest now and just come with me."

Her breathing started to become increasingly labored as blood continued to pour out from her fatal wound. Seishiro knelt in front of her and noticed that she was on the brink of death so he finally decided to heal her using the feather. Her wound closed in an instant as the magic of the feather flowed through her. It felt warm, just like how Sakura made her feel. She was still weak and pale however as the closing of her wound didn't restore any of her lost blood.

"You've lost a lot of blood. You'll die if it doesn't get replenished." He said, raising her head up with his hands. "Drink my blood." He offered, his smile gone.

Meine tried to sit up by herself but it was in vain, she was still too weak to move on her own. "I would never… drink from you" she panted heavily.

He helped her sit up straight by letting her lean against him.

Meine's eyes turned gold when she smelled his blood. He presented his bleeding arm to her as an invitation for her to drink. She stubbornly refused, closing her eyes tightly and turning her head away. "I'd rather die than have you inside me!"

Seishiro chuckled softly. He used his magic to gather up the blood flowing out of his wound into a solid red ball. As he finished gathering his blood, he quickly healed himself. It was the size of a marble but it contained enough of his blood to replenish her enough for her to be able to stand and move.

He held the solid marble in his fingers and tried to force it into her mouth.

"No!" she screamed as she saw what he was about to do. She struggled to get out of his arms and kept her mouth tightly closed.

"You haven't changed one bit." He clicked his tongue. "Still as stubborn as ever." He spun her around so she was facing him, then he put the marble in his mouth and pulled Meine's hair back with one hand. When she yelped in pain, he took the opportunity to force the marble into her open mouth with a kiss.

 _Disgusting! I hate this!_  Meine screamed in her mind as she struggled, trying to spit out the cold marble. Seishiro deepened their kiss and used his tongue to push the marble further down her mouth, forcing her to swallow it so that she won't gag.

Once he was sure that the princess had swallowed it, he pulled away to see tears clouding her amethyst eyes. To him, the kiss was nothing. It was just a way of delivering what he needed to deliver. But to Meine, it was the most horrendous violation. She didn't know that she could still hate him even more than she already did.

"You're a monster!" she yelled as she pushed him away. She wanted to throw up when she felt the energy his blood gave her. She fought back the urge to and stood up on her feet. She jumped away from him, putting enough distance between them for her to be able to cast a spell.

She brought her fingers up and pointed them at Seishiro. Lightning cackled at her feet as a burst of lighting shot at Seishiro. He grinned and used the feather to shield himself from her attack.

At the same time, a huge tear appeared right beside them revealing Syaoran holding a flaming sword. Kurogane, and Sakura stood behind him while Fai stood at his side. The plane completely disappeared and the two of them were brought back to Edonis.

The raven haired princess fell to her knees as the use of a powerful spell took a toll on her newly healed body.

"You've gotten better, Meine." he said, looking at the intruders. He was impressed by how they were able to figure out that they were still there and by how they found a way to tear through the plane he brought the two of them into. He suspected the mage had played the biggest part in destroying his alternate plane. "I'm sure you and Syaoran will grow stronger."

A magic circle similar to Yuuko's appeared under his feet as he readied to move to another dimension. "It'll be too difficult to take you with me now that the others are here."

Meine used up all her strength to stand up. "Seishiro you bastard! I will kill you!" she shouted.

He smiled for one last time at her as he was disappearing. "We'll meet again, Meine… Until that time comes, please stay well."

Meine's eyes met with Fai as he looked worriedly at the girl. He ran towards her, reaching her just in time to catch her from falling to the ground. Fai carried her up in his arms. Mokona who was on his shoulder floated up into the air. Its large wings stretched out behind it.

"What's going on?" Meine asked, gripping onto his shirt.

"It seems that Mokona has picked up the trail of Seishiro-san's magic device. They are both from the Dimensional Witch. The roots of their power are the same." Fai explained.

He held Meine tightly. "Meine, Syaoran-kun, Sakura-chan, Kuro-rin… We have to bid farewell to this country."

"Eh?"

A magic circle appeared underneath Mokona who had its eyes closed. It opened its mouth and at the same time, the Edonis country seems to be returning back to normal. Meine, Fai, Sakura, Syaoran, and Kurogane were then swallowed by Mokona's powerful vacuum.

Meine closed her eyes and held onto Fai tightly as she braced herself for another drop to a new world. She was incredibly thankful to have survived that ordeal.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to listen to the song Meine played on the piano, just look up Yiruma – Kiss the rain on youtube haha!
> 
> The song up there in the middle is the English translation of "Kaze no Machi e" by FunctionJunction Keiko. We got it from gendou so we don't own any of those.
> 
> This story is also posted on Fanfic net under sweet strawberry kiss. It has 13 Chapters on there but I am updating the story and changing a lot so there are only 4 UPDATED chapters so far.
> 
> If you want to proceed beyond Chapter 4 please know that the story, characters, and plot will not match what you have read so far.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Please don't hesitate to let us know what you think!


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